Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter turnout? In order to answer this question, one must first examine how voter participation is calculated. Many voters are skeptical as to whether or not their votes are significant enough to make a difference. In the article “What is the probability your vote will make a difference?”, Andrew Gelman, Nate Silver, and Aaron Edlin examine the probability that a given person’s vote will be decisive in comparison to that of another. The following paragraphs will examine the differences between calculating voter turnout using the voting-age population versus voting-eligible population as well as the probability of vote decisiveness.
Voting is a simple process and many people are concerned about why people do not participate. It is assumed that voter turnout has decreased since the age requirement was dropped from 21 to 18 in 1971. The question is, why is the voter participation disappearing slowly? In order to answer this question, one must first examine how voter participation is calculated, and th...
... middle of paper ...
...lated as one might assume. Computing a statistic regarding voter turnout is difficult because it is hard to obtain accurate information on the population. Also, it can be debated which populations should be included and excluded in the overall population used to determine the statistics of voter turnout. Those who assume that one vote is not enough to make a difference are incorrect because although the vote of a random citizen may not seem as though it is decisive, those who live in states where there is higher individual vote decisiveness have a higher probability of making a difference.
Works Cited
Gelman, Andrew, Silver, Nate, & Edlin, Aaron. (2008). “What is the probability your vote will make a difference? pp. 1-5.
McDonald, Michael. P., & Popkin, Samuel. L. (2001). “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter”. American Political Science Review. 95(4), pp. 963-970.
Americans and Britons had a stronger sense of civic duty and and civic competence, believed they could “do something’ about an unjust law, and that citizens should be active in one’s community. While Americans lagged behind Austria, the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom in voter participation, they seemed to be much more involved in other areas such as campaigning, being active in the local community, and contacting government official. But in “Bowling Alone,” Robert Putnam states that not only has voter turnout declined, but so has citizen participation in politics and government. This is because they are more self-reliant now. People do not vote because they do not care. They believe the democratic values this nation was built upon do not exist
"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.
Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt believe that voting in an election is seemingly ineffective, that the chances of you winning a lottery and actually affecting an election are very similar. This article I’m analyzing questions why we vote, and if voting is even worth your time.
Loewen, P. J., Milner, H., & Hicks, B. M. (1997). Does Compulsory Voting Lead To More Informed and Engaged Citizens? An Experimental Test. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 41(3), 655-672. Retrieved from http://journals1.scholarsportal.info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/tmp/44514596344978336.pdf
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Why Americans Don't Vote. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
The United States national elections have been experiencing a steady decline of eligible voters showing up to vote. This steady decline has been ongoing since experiencing a significant increase in voter turnout from 1948 through 1960. Over the years there has been significant, meticulous research done to try to pinpoint the cause of the decline in voter turnout over years. All of this research has led to the production of an enormous number of literatures written on the perceived causes. The vast amount of literature produced has led to a number of competing explanations about this decline. The quest for the answer to the question of, why this decline in voter turnout, is very important for an overwhelming majority of Americans and our democratic system because the people/voters can only truly be represented by our government if all eligible voters go out and vote. For this paper I will examine four theories that attempt to explain the decline. The four theories that I will discuss are voting barriers, campaign contributions, negative campaign advertising, and finally the cultural explanation. However, through thorough exploration and critiques of the strengths and weaknesses of these four theories, we will find that the cultural explanation theory is currently the most persuasive theory in the group. Finally, I will also explore some reasons as to why citizens do vote as well.
Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase. It’s very unsettling to know that there was a six percent decrease in young voters (ages 18-29) in the 2012 election compared to 2008 (Circle Youth data). In 2007, the National Conference of State Legislatures publicly released a report and data set on voter turnout in democratic countries. This is a quote from that report titled Getting out the Vote, “It should be noted that in 1972, 18-year-olds were added to the eligible voting population, thus decreasing the percentages. Nonetheless, voter turnout in the United States is lower than that of every democracy in the world other than Switzerland and Poland” (33.3)....
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.
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.
In both turnout rate charts, the highest turnout of voters in November happens during Presidential elections. The second highest turnout rate happens during Gubernatorial elections, while the lowest turnout of all the elections happens during special Constitutional elections. Analysis of these rates over the span of 2001 – 2014 shows that more voters participated in Presidential elections. This is also the type of election that is the least frequent of the three election types analyzed. This suggests that voters are more likely to participate in elections that do not happen every year.
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...
Austin Ranney does not dread that low voting is hurting American democracy. Arend Lijphart believes that democracy is meaningless without voting. The fact that to many people do not vote for Presidential or Congressional elections concerns him. With numbers like 49 and 55 percent of the eligible population voting on Presidential elections, Lijphart questions the actual democracy in America. Low voting turnouts is giving large groups more control over government ideals. Lijphart thinks the best way to solve this problem is to raise turnouts in a variety of ways. Things like weekend voting and easier ways of acquiring absentee ballots will increase the number of voters. Also, having multiple elect...
Over the recent year’s American voters have brought back a way of voting that was used during the country’s old age of existence, this rediscovered act is known as early voting. Early voting started in the early 1990s, though the outcome has not had such a high consistency over the years it is still recommended to help the Election Day process in the country. Since voter turnout is not entirely consistent due to the process being constantly shortened by state laws, the argument against early voting is that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money, opponents believe it is ineffective. Although that is not the case, in his 2016 blog article, “A Brief History of Early Voting,” Michael McDonald inform readers on the brief history of early voting as he states how the rates of voters who has cast their ballots before election day has increased over the years, “from less than a tenth to about a third” (qtd. in McDonald) since the 1990s. This proves to show why the money being spent on this act is not simply being wasted. Although early voting has
The American Political System The American political system is a federal system, which consists of