I’m nervous. This is my first time voting and I don’t want to mess it up. I walk into town hall, a building that seems to be reserved for special events. I wait for a few moments; finally I reach the older woman who is handing out ballots. She asks for my name, which I answer with a clear “Deirdre Ball.” She checks a list of pre-registered voters. Earlier in the week, someone had come to my high school to register high school seniors that are old enough to vote. The person that came to my high school was working on her own; she didn’t have a large-scale organization behind her. All she cared about was making sure that everyone who was able to vote did. It turned out my name wasn’t on the registration list, a mystery of which I’ll never know the cause. This didn’t prevent me from voting. All I had to do was show the older lady my ID and she filled out a sheet. This situation got me thinking though, how many people struggle with trying to vote? How many people’s opinions aren’t being heard because they don’t know how to register?
The organization Rock the Vote has been helping young people engage in political activity for over 20 years. According to their website, rockthevote.com, Rock the Vote first started as a result of attacks on freedom of speech and artist expression. This all started in 1990 in Los Angeles California, and was founded by a man named Jeff Ayeroff, who was a Virgin Records executive. He also had the assistance of Steve Barr, who was a campaign worker and political fundraiser. On their website, Rock the Votes says that they work “with artists to grab the attention of young people, and engage them in building a political movement to fight for young people and the issues that affect their lives.” In 1992, two yea...
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...er turn out in the years since it’s founding, I would say that Rock the Vote hasn’t been very been very successful. Although it may bring attention to voting and increase voter registration, it has not been successful in actually getting people to the polls.
Works Cited
Kawahinma-Ginsberg, Kel, Dr. A Voter Turnout Time Series For 1972-2010. 12 Nov. 2011. Raw data. Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University, Tufts University.
LaMendola, Maura. "About Us." Rock the Vote:. Rock the Vote, 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Powers, Doug. "Rock the Vote Crumbles." The American Spectator. N.p., 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Rock the Vote Staff. "History of Rock the Vote." Rock the Vote:. Rock the Vote, 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Softley, Jeff. "MTV's Rock the Vote: Beyond Useless." The Raw Story. Raw Story Media Inc., 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
"Miller light and bud light…either way you end up with a mighty weak beer!" This is how Jim Hightower (a Texan populist speaker) described the choices that the U.S. electorate had in the 2000 elections. This insinuates that there is a clear lack of distinction between the parties. Along with numerous others, this is one of the reasons why the turnout is so low in the U.S. elections. In trying to explain the low figures at the U.S. elections, analysts have called American voters apathetic to indifferent to downright lazy. I disagree that the 50% (in recent elections) of voters that fail to turnout to vote are lazy and that they have just reason not too. I will also show that the problem lies within the system itself in that the institutional arrangements, electoral and governmental, do not create an environment that is conducive to mass participation. I will address these main issues and several others that have an effect on voter participation. In doing so I will compare America to other established democracies.
Samples, John. "Three Myths about Voter Turnout." Political Analysis. N.p., 14 Sept. 2004. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. .
The Chartist movement (a working class political movement) in 1840 believed “People had no one else but themselves to blame for the actions of their politicians” (Nash). What Mr. Nash and the chartist movement believe couldn’t be more on the spot. This country has gotten to the point where people find it hard to walk down their street to the elementary school where the voting polls are, and take a few minutes to cast a vote. A vote that millions of people around the world wish they were able to have them selves. With all the political suffrage that goes on through the world and people forced to love a leader, these no-shows should be thankful to live in a democracy. A place where elections aren’t rigged and the people are truly heard. This is why the topic of voting turnout needs to be raised. Also it’s very annoying to hear people complaining about our President when they did not even vote. It’s a very bad habit to not vote, and it needs to change with the younger citizens of this country. Helping younger people see the importance of voting needs to start with technological and educational ideas while expanding all the way to social event ideas. Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase.
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Ross, Kelly. “Electoral College Outdated.” Northern Arizona News. 6 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Pammett, J., & LeDuc, L. (2003). Explaining turnout decline in Canadian federal elections: A survey of non-voters. Elections Canada, 40.
Pammett, Jon, and Lawrence LeDuc. 2003. Explaining the Turnout Decline in Canadian Federal Elections: A New Survey of Non-Voters. Ottawa: Elections Canada.
Voter turnout, according to the text, “. . .means the portion of the eligible citizens who actually cast ballots--not the portion of those registered, . . . (142).” Data reveals that the voter turnout of Texas is relatively lower than that of the United States as a whole. During presidential elections, voter turnout is higher than that of state and local elections. For example, the text states that in the 2008 presidential balloting, Texas voter turnout was about eight percentage points below the national turnout level(142). However, the voter turnout of the United States compared to that of other countries is lower than the global level. In a graph presented for voter turnout rate of registered voters, the United States is located on the bottom of the list. From U.S News, Flock states,“The U.S has one of the lowest voter turnout rates of any rich democracy in the world(Flock).” Factors that influence voting around the world, for example, may be the choice to submit a vote online, such as in India, rather than going into a v...
Hudson, William E. American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future – Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004.
Voting is one of the citizens’ rights living in a country. In the past, not everyone can vote. Voting used to be for only white American men. However, our ancestors fought for that rights. Eventually, any American who are older than eighteen can vote, despite their race or gender. In addition, voter turnout is used to keep track of the voting. It is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Unfortunately, the voter turnout has been decreasing over time, and it means that there are less and fewer people who actually show up and vote. This essay will discuss the voter turnout in Harris County, Texas.
When America was first established, they had the highest voting turnouts ever in American history. Ever since, America’s voting turn-out has dropped (Fortin). The reason for the high turn outs were because American colonists wanted change from the British’s electoral system. As history writes, American colonist rebel and over time becomes one of the greatest countries ever. Today, Americans are one of the worst countries in vote to registration as they rank 120 in the world (Pintor). Over the summer, I got to learn more about Ohio’s electoral system and voting turn outs in a first hand experience. A decreasing number of voting to registration is not only a national problem, but a local issue as well and there are creative ideas in fixing these
The United States presidential election of 2012 was the 57th presidential election. The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The Democratic political leader was the incumbent President Barack Obama, and his candidate was vice President Joe Biden. Throughout this election the proportion of eligible voters who cast ballots shows that the rate was lower than in the past two presidential elections. Voter turnout decreased from 62.3 percent of eligible citizens voting in 2008 to an estimated 57.5 in 2012. The above calculation was also below the 60.4 percent in 2004 election, however above the 54.2 percent turnout in the 2000 election. Despite a rise of over eight million voters within the fitted population, turnout dropped from 131 million voters in 2008 to an estimated 126 million voters in 2012. When all ballots were computed, some 93 million eligible voters didn’t vote. There must be some contributing factors to see why there's a decline in voters’ turnout.
At the same time, however, popular political activity other than voting declined. Judging by available evidence, state and national governments ...
middle of paper ... ...//permanent.access.gpo.gov /lps70995/state.gov/etexts/oecon/index.htm File, T. & Crissey, S. (2010 ). Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008 – Population Characteristics. Retrieved August 21, 2010 from http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p20-562. “Medicare and the New Health Care Law — What it Means for You.” (2010).
America’s low voter turnout has been attributed to the political parties’ failure to enliven the potential voters with the awareness and competitiveness in elections and the overall difficulty of the registration and voting process. The research portion of this project was predominantly provided from four books focused on voter turnout, whether it was perceived to be increasing or decreasing. The article was found using one of the books and altogether the sources provided analytical and institutional perspectives on American voter turnout. I believe voter turnout, along with voter registration, is steadily declining in America due to multiple factors, though the topics touched on above are largely impacting us today.