The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin
The Indiana Civic Health Index group reports that the Hoosier state consistently ranks in the bottom 10 nationally in voter turnout, something the group seeks to remedy and with good reason.
Imagine if instead of all citizens voting for our leaders, we allowed half the country to make that decision for the other half. Unfortunately, here in Indiana, that is exactly what we’ve been doing.
The civic health index shows that 58.3% of eligible Hoosiers voted in the 2016 election, and 49.3 % voted in the 2018 midterm election.
In its report, the Indiana Civic Health Index Group suggests the creation of a civic education task force to identify reasons for low voter turnout and to create recommendations for improved participation.
Voter participation seems to be low across demographics, the report said, suggesting that civic education is the key to improvement.
We suspect this lack of participation stems from cynicism, apathy and a general lack of awareness of the role of government.
The proposed task force should take a nonpartisan approach to civic education and foster engagement at all levels of government.
Only through maximum participation can we ensure that the leaders we elect accurately represent us.
Our leaders are meant to be representatives of the people. We should not let them be representations of our apathy.
