Sharon: The high number of citizens not registered to vote has persisted despite many attempts to make registering easier. Surveys show that most of these citizens believe that their votes would not make a difference. Until that belief is changed, simplifying the registration process will not increase the percentage of citizens registering to vote.
Speaker 1 Summary
Francis concludes that more people would register and vote if local election boards made the registration process easier. This is because failure to properly register prevents a large portion of the voting-age citizens from voting.
Speaker 2 Summary
Sharon concludes that until people start to think their votes make a difference, simplifying the registration process would not lead to more people registering and voting. This is because the portion of citizens who don’t register has been high even after prior attempts to simplify the registration process, and because surveys show most citizens think their votes won’t make a difference.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. The speakers disagree about whether making the registration process easier will lead to more people registering and voting.
A
whether changing the voter registration process would be cumbersome
Neither expresses an opinion about this. Francis speaks about a cumbersome registration process, but doesn’t say anything about whether changing the process will be cumbersome.
B
why so many citizens do not register to vote
This is a point of disagreement, although not framed in the way we might have predicted. Francis thinks so many people aren’t voting because of a difficult registration process. Sharon thinks the real problem is a belief that one’s vote doesn’t make a difference.
C
what percentage of those registered to vote actually vote
Sharon doesn’t express an opinion about what proportion of people aren’t registered to vote.
D
whether local election boards have simplified the registration process
Francis doesn’t express any opinion about this. She thinks more people would register to vote if the process were easier, but that doesn’t indicate any belief about whether some simplification has already occurred.
E
why the public lacks confidence in the effects of voting
Neither express an opinion about this. Although Sharon mentions that people don’t think their votes make a difference, she doesn’t describe why people think this way.