1) What is the central theme and the author's purpose in the text below? How does the author develop and communicate this theme and purpose? Give specific evidence from the text to support your answer

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1) What is the central theme and the author's purpose in the text below? How does the author develop and communicate this theme and purpose? Give specific evidence from the text to support your answer. 

"In our current system of voluntary voting, the winner of an election is determined by the candidate's ability to create controversy rather than by leadership skill. Campaigns therefore focus on highly motivated voters. These also tend to be the most partisan. This constant appeal to extremes on both sides of the political spectrum abandons voters in the middle. In turn, these moderates opt out on Election Day, since none of the candidates seem to be speaking to their concerns. Compulsory voting would offer candidates less incentive to inflame passions (Ornstein, Galston). Without having to spend so much of their time trying to appeal solely to the highly partisan voters most likely to show up at the polls, they could instead spend more time crafting policy proposals to meet the needs of all voters. Fewer highly partisan lawmakers would mean more cooperation and less unnecessary government gridlock"

 

 

 

2.Revise this paragraph from the essay on voter identification, which focuses on one of the claim's supporting reasons. As you revise the paragraph, focus on:

1. making sure the point of the paragraph is precise and related to the overall claim in the essay,
2. using words, phrases, and clauses to link major ideas in the paragraph,
3. organizing ideas in a logical way,
4. stating and addressing a counterclaim,
5. maintaining a formal style and objective tone, and
6. correcting MLA citation errors.

Underline any portions of the original paragraph that you include in your version of the paragraph. 

Paragraph to be revised:

 

Essay claim: Laws requiring people to show photo identification in order to vote decrease voter participation.

 

Lots of people don't have photo identification. Requiring people to show photo identification to vote would keep those without this type of identification from voting. Those who often don't have identification include elderly individuals who no longer drive and citizens living in high poverty areas where transportation is limited. They would be denied the chance to vote. Sociologist Mark Abernathy writes, "requiring photo identification in order to vote essentially eliminates a whole population of American voters. These voters are part of society, but they are denied a basic right guaranteed to all Americans over the age of eighteen. Elections are then determined by only a portion of the population, not the entire population" (page 820 of the article "Photo Identification Disenfranchisement"). Some people think this is just not true. Ria Olberson, an economist at Alabaster University, states, "few Americans are without drivers' licenses. Even if the license is expired or revoked, it still counts as photo identification. To claim that requiring identification disenfranchises a segment of the American population is simply inaccurate" (page 101). Olberson is just wrong! A lot of people don't have licenses because they either don't need them or they don't want them. Consider people living in major cities. They have no reason to get driver's licenses: public transportation. This extremely large group of people would be forced to obtain driver's licenses to participate in a process that they are guaranteed as citizens of the United State