Proxy Voting isn’t what it seems
I am a left coast, vegetarian, globalist, liberal teenager, so it means a lot when I say that Democrats are making a terrible mistake by supporting proxy voting.
I talked to my grandparents yesterday and they thought proxy voting was voting over Zoom. IT IS NOT. Proxy voting allows one representative to vote for up to 10 other representatives who aren’t present. This system creates more centralization of power, robs younger and western members of their opinions, and can only lead to more partisanship.
Congress was created to decentralize power. The house has 435 voting members, and for the House to serve this function, every member needs to be able to fully participate and vote as the individual representative of their district. By May 27, the first proxy vote, seventy-one democrats gave up their right to their own opinions when they gave their votes to other members. My representative, Ted Lieu, signed away his vote to Virginia representative Don Beyer. Don Beyer is one of my favorite representatives, he is an Italian immigrant and honorary member of The Squad, but my district didn’t vote for him: we voted for Ted Lieu. He didn’t even notify us when he gave up his right to have his own opinion. And as of the publication of this blog, seventy-three Democrat representatives — nearly one-third of the House Democratic Caucus — have given up their vote.
This system shifts power unfairly, elevating eastern and senior members. As you would expect, the Democrats who live driving distance from D.C. are serving as voters. So proxy voting gives power to representatives in states like Virginia, New York, or Maryland. If all Democrats were the same, Pelosi may as well be the only vote. But California democrats are not the same as Virginia democrats. Our votes should represent us.
The proxy system also robs younger members of their votes. Senior members grabbed the lion’s share of the proxies. For example, Freshmen representative Lori Trahan gave her vote to a representative who held his seat since 2013.
As our representatives give up their individualism, partisanship will get worse, and new ideas will stop being heard. If a Democrat wants to support a Republican bill, rather than just being able to vote for it, they have to make the very politically dangerous move of revoking their proxy to another Democrat, and giving it to a member of the Republican party. Furthermore, this system stops new ideas from being heard. If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives away her votes, how can she champion the Green New Deal? Democracy can’t function when the people we chose to represent us aren’t voting for us. If you gave your vote to your mom that would be called voter fraud. Elected officials shouldn’t give their votes away either.
What should we do?
It doesn’t make sense to bring all of our representatives together under pandemic — I’m not asking Ted Lieu to get on a plane. But there are other ways to have votes. For me the answer is obvious. ALLOW VOTING ONLINE. It’s 2020: our government is fully capable of running a video call securely. The internet was created by our government precisely so that the government could distribute government functionality in the event of an emergency. The internet has evolved, but that basic function remains. USE IT.
PS. To Ted Lieu and Don Beyer I am huge fans of yours, if you want to talk here is my LinkedIn
Sources:
Check if your representative is voting by proxy: https://clerkpreview.house.gov/ProxyLetter#ActiveProxies
Source on first vote: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/27/michigan-republican-reps-join-lawsuit-against-houses-voting-proxy/5268913002/
The graphic at the top is by Jacob Zwang
