The Ethics of Citizenship

This article is part of a limited series featuring Santa Clara thought leaders leading up to the U.S. Election on November 5, 2024.

We are just weeks away from the 2024 presidential election and prognosticators disagree about whether voter turnout will rise or fall in the election. If turnout increases, we may take pride in this sign of a healthy democracy. If the turnout rates drop, we could witness not simply a decline in political participation but a troubling potential sign of voters’ disinterest in the most fundamental aspect of citizenship.

How should citizens decide on whether or not to vote? We might begin with an understanding of the rights and obligations of being a citizen in a democracy. A United States citizen has the right to vote and to run for elective office. Citizens also have the responsibility to participate in the political process and to be informed on issues facing society. Citizens, therefore, have an ethical duty to exercise their rights and responsibilities to participate as informed voters in elections.

Voter turnout has trended positively since the 1996 elections when only 52% voted, reaching 66% in 2020. However during the last presidential election, there were a number of factors that influenced participation: the country was in the midst of a pandemic; states enacted changes in voting procedures that made it easier to participate; President Donald Trump was unpopular; and Democrats nominated Joe Biden to bring experience and normality back to the Oval Office.

While some believed voter turnout would be lower in 2024 because of the post-pandemic environment and a rematch between Trump and Biden, the addition of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee has more recent assessments suggesting that turnout could actually rise to a record level in 2024.

In many states today, it has never been easier to vote. States have adopted laws that provide for same-day registration and voting, mail-in ballots, early voting, and casting provisional ballots. It was once a requirement that all voters, except those with an approved absentee ballot, had to go to the polls on a single day in November to cast a ballot. But now, there is a weeks-long period of multiple options for easier voting.

Still one must consider an effort that has been underway across multiple states since 2021 to restrict voting or to make it more difficult for voters to cast a ballot, under the guise of making the election more secure. Among the restrictions adopted have been new rules on registering to vote (including strict voter identification requirements), limiting early voting, reducing voting locations and times, closing poll locations on college campuses, and limiting the availability of drop-off locations for mail or absentee ballots.

Some look at our country and find reasons to ignore their right and responsibility to vote. Yes, we are a nation divided on many issues, our society is polarized on social and political issues, and the two major political parties appear unmoved by the expectation to compromise. Division—not union—seems to represent the preferences of too many Americans and their leaders.

Such circumstances are ripe for despair and a withdrawal from our duties as citizens. But ethical citizens can see and find the common good in political participation at the ballot box. Democracy was designed to be a full-participation sport, a crucial aspect of a functioning democracy. In the words of John W. Gardner, founder of Common Cause and a Republican who served as a cabinet Secretary in the Democratic administration of Lyndon Johnson, “Liberty and duty, freedom and responsibility. That’s the deal.”

We need our citizens to care about democracy, its purpose, and its potential even in a divided political culture. So, in the election of 2024, do not stay home, do not ignore the duty to vote. Rise above indecisiveness and apathy. Become educated about the promise of our electoral system, informed about candidates, and aware of the critical issues that are at stake in this election. And, regardless of your political party, the fact that you are an independent, what the latest polls may say about whether your vote will matter, or your feelings about the choice of candidates you have, get out and vote. It is a basic right and ethical duty of citizenship in our democracy.

John P. Pelissero is director of government ethics and Ann G. Skeet is senior director of leadership ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics of Santa Clara University. Both are coauthors (with the late Hana Callaghan) of Voting for Ethics: A Guide for U.S. Voters, 2^nd ed. (Palmetto Publishing, August 2024).