A citizen’s vote is incredibly impactful to the outcome of local elections. With a smaller populations size each vote makes a larger impact, for example on one election day in Ohio seven different items on the ballot were decided by just one vote however many Americans believe that their vote does not matter especially when it comes to the presidential election every four years due to the idea that a single vote does not effect such a large election and the system of the electoral college, but the fact is every Americans vote matters especially in the local elections. In 2014 less than twenty percent of voting age citizens voted in their local elections which is a problem because this means that around a fifth of the population is making the decisions of the entire population and that fifth is often not an accurate sample of the entirety of the population which means the election results often don’t match the views of the citizens.
For everyday life local elections are very impactful because you vote on your city council members, these members then represent that city for two years, they will vote on large scale issues like infrastructure (for example the trinity toll road), how schools are managed and the standards they are held to, and they also decide the structure of the public transit system . It is very important to choose your representation amongst the city council because they can affect a citizen more directly.
Local elections also give the citizens the power to directly vote on certain issues like the recent vote in Arlington on whether or not to build a new stadium for the Texas Rangers in which the citizens could vote directly on whether or not to allow the build. The voters of Arlington decided in favor of the one billion dollar stadium.
The local vote is one of the most important duties and privileges among american citizens and the more participation in these votes the more accurately the government represents the citizens they are governing. An election that has a larger percentage of population is much more likely represent the political views and ideals of the community.
21st Century Citizenship 