The Last Word
by Kate Koch
Aug. 30, 1999. Ninety-nine percent of registered voters in East Timor voted to determine their independence from Indonesia — thousands of those voters and their children were killed in post-vote violence.
East Timor had been a province of Indonesia for 33 years. According to a Los Angeles Times report, since Indonesia claimed East Timor in 1975 as many as 200,000 Timorese have died as a result of warfare or starvation. Although the region was under Indonesian rule, it was actually controlled by Indonesian-military armed militias that roamed the region wielding swords, spears and machetes.
In 1999, Indonesian President BJ Habibie granted the East Timorese the right to vote for their independence. In the days leading up to the election, East Timor was rocked by violence as pro-Indonesian militias killed at least 1,000 pro-independence voters and intimidated countless others. The violence drove as many as 80,000 people from their homes, according to the United Nations.
But the militias couldn’t control the will of the people. On election day, 79 percent of East Timorese voted to be an independent nation and the pro-Indonesian militias were outraged. They stormed though the countryside killing thousands of Timorese and destroying about 85 percent of the country’s infrastructure. Women were gang-raped and two-thirds of the population fled to neighboring regions until the U.N. halted the violence.
"The right to vote is arguably one of the most important rights of citizenship in a democratic country yet a substantial number of U.S. citizens choose not to exercise this right," according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on voting and registration in the November 2000 election.
According to statistics gathered from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, about 25 percent of voting-age Americans voted for George W. Bush, another 25 percent voted for Al Gore and 2 percent voted for either Patrick Buchanan or Ralph Nader. This means that only 52 percent of voting-age Americans voted and about a quarter of them picked the leader of our country.
A look at the raw numbers — 50,456,062 votes for Bush and 50,996,582 votes for Gore — shows that the two candidates were separated by less than half a million votes.
But, in the United States it’s the Electoral College votes that count. Bush received 271 votes and Gore got 266.
Critics and commentators have all formed their own conspiracy theories about how Gore could have won the popular vote and lost the election. Many believe that Governor Jeb Bush had something to do with the way the vote turned out in Florida. But, the fact is, the average American will never know what actually happened during the months before the U.S. Supreme Court chose our president and, I would argue, they don’t really care.
According to the Census Bureau, 21 percent of registered voters who didn’t vote in 2000 said they were "too busy" on election day. Another 12 percent said they just weren’t interested in voting.
Harvard University professor Robert Putnam has written a number of articles and a book — "Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community" — detailing the decline of civic engagement in the United States. He reported that many elements of civic engagement in America appear to be on the decline. Fewer people nationwide attend public meetings, are members of community organizations, give to charity and vote today than 30 years ago.
According to Washington state’s voter participation statistics, the percentage of voting-age citizens that actually vote has declined by about 15 percent since 1952.
As a voting citizen, this worries me. If we stay on this same path, fewer and fewer people will choose the leaders who make decisions in the name of the United States. Some of these decisions are minor — like what color the dining room should be in the White House — but most of them are crucial.
Decisions like how our most cherished environmental laws — the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act — are implemented shouldn’t be left to an individual who was chosen by a quarter of voting-age citizens. In order to have a robust exchange of ideas in this country, more people have to speak.
It is difficult to believe that in a country where, according to a survey conducted by The Polling Company in 1999, 70 percent of registered voters are concerned about the environment, we have one of the least environmentally responsible presidents in history.
It’s time for that 70 percent of concerned voters to get off their rears and chug down to their polling station once every four years. Heck, if they like it, they can vote in federal races every two years! And, if they like voting every two years, they should try voting every year.
According to the census, 86 percent of registered voters actually voted in 2000. If 70 percent of registered voters voted for the most environmentally responsible candidate in 2000, the nation’s environmental profile would probably be drastically different.
The environment would be an issue on par with homeland security or health care. Perhaps the director of the Environmental Protection Agency would be a cabinet-level position. Maybe the Oeser site in Bellingham would receive the full benefit of the Superfund program or kayakers who use Clearwater Creek wouldn’t fear losing the best stretch of whitewater in the county. In this perfect world, the Freedom of Information Act would be a nearly hassle-free process for all citizens, the environmental education community wouldn’t beg for more funding and wealthy corporations wouldn’t be able to buy the ability to pollute.
Today, now-independent East Timor has begun to form a stable nation. Aug. 30, 2001, the nation elected 88 new assembly members to draft the country’s first constitution. Ninety-one percent of registered voters turned out to vote for candidates from 16 parties.
Granted, the East Timorese are still feeding on post-revolutionary fervor but hopefully, next time a vote comes up more people will remember that being a free nation wasn’t always so easy.
Do your civic duty — vote.