Public Office Votes

The article I am analyzing is called “No More Hiding from Folks in Texas” and it is an editorial from the Austin American Statesman that appeared on September 24^th of this year. The targeted audience is the readers of the Statesman and the source is the editorial board of the same.

This article argues that in the November 6^th election this year voters should approve proposition 11 to make all legislators’ votes on all bills public and available on the Internet. The editorial board argues that this is an important change because under current law the legislators just say “yea” or “nay” verbally and it is impossible to keep track of all lawmakers’ responses. The board also argues that this bill has no down side but most importantly informs the voters of what kind of decisions their representatives and senators are making on controversial bills.

The evidence put forth by the editorial board says that keeping citizens virtually uninformed on lawmakers’ decisions is bad government and citizens have the right to know what their elected representatives are voting for. The editorial board argues that excuses from lawmakers on why their votes aren’t made public aren’t valid and that they are afraid of political backlash, which is inexcusable. The main piece of evidence is brought up again and it is stressed that it should be a right to know what the public’s elected officials are actually doing with their position of power.

When evaluating the conclusion I first thought that the editorial board didn’t make a very good argument because it was only supported by really one substantial piece of evidence but then I realized that that one piece of evidence is all there is and all the needs to be. Citizens should be more informed as to what is happening in the capitol because since the public elects the officials the public has a right to know that their candidate isn’t just talking the talk, and that he/she is actually walking the walk.

The political implications of this shouldn’t be too major although if there are some legislators that vote differently than they say they do, or promise they will, there could be new lawmakers in here in Austin.