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Institutional factors that affect turnout elections
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Additionally, voter turnout today is the greatest puzzle among American voting behaviors. Similarly, Congress decided to propose and the states ratified the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. In turn, younger age males are less likely to vote in elections and this was the reason of reduced national turnout rates. Consequently, attitudes towards politics in general can also be a reason for the decline of voters. Identically, voters beliefs are that government choose to ignore citizens, that there are too many politicians, and that the campaigns are extremely long. Still, voter turnout will only increase if the government decides to do something to restore our fate in the political system. Moreover, voters feel a burden
"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.
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.
1. How can we explain the low voting turnout, and low participation in general, in Texas? Consider how political culture, socio-economics, race/ethnicity, age, institutional laws etc. may affect these low rates.
Research has brought about an abundance of reasons why youth are becoming less engaged in the political process. Education, absence of political knowledge, the media and family influence, indifference to election campaigns, inadequate amount of change, and lack of motivation are all possible factors in influencing the youth voter turnout.
BACKGROUND: In October of 2016, Jens Manuel Krogstad, reporting for the Pew Research Center, noted that a record 27.3 million Latinos were eligible to vote – representing nearly 12% of all those eligible to cast ballots in the United States. Growing by nearly four million voters since 2012, the Latino community has accounted for nearly 37 percent of the total growth in all eligible voters since President Obama’s reelection. Despite rapid expansion within the American electorate, a tradition of low-voter turnout has long pervaded the community and contributes to a striking underrepresentation of Latinos in the political discourse of the United States. Remarkably, 44 percent of Latino voters are millennials and represent 80 percent of the increase
If we imagine how voter turnout used to be in the later elections back then, it was nothing compared to how they are today. For example, if we examine the 2004 and 2008 election. We can conclude that the voter turnout in the 2004 election was greatly impressive. Altogether, Bush received around 62,000,000 votes. Why? because people actually came out to vote during this election and he even had a 6.4% higher numbers than in 2000. The 2008 election, we can see a higher voter turnout among African Americans particularly young voters. For example, compared to the 2004 election, a record 55.4% of blacks voted in 2008 than 47.1% in 2004 between the ages of 18-24. Between 25-44 years old, 64% of blacks voted in 2008 while 59.3% voted for Bush in 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.
Voter turnout in the United States is much lower than that of other countries. According to a Pew Research Center article by Drew Desilver, voter turnout in the United States ranked 31st among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In comparison to our North American neighbors, Mexico and Canada ranked 18th and 29th respectively. Ranking at number one and two were Belgium and Turkey, however those countries have a compulsory voting system which explains the high voter turnout. Topping the polls for non-compulsory countries were Sweden at number three and Denmark at number four. Only Japan (32nd), Chile (33rd) and Switzerland (35th)fell below the United States.
The book Is Voting for Young People? By Martin P. Wattenberg is an interesting read on the reasons as to why the younger generations that are legally allowed to vote are not showing up to the polls on voting day. Wattenberg explores how and where the younger generations are even gaining their political knowledge and how that is effecting their desire and/or feeling of obligation to vote. In the following paragraphs, you will get to know and understand some of the evidence as to why so many young people do not vote according to Wattenberg as well as my opinions on some of his arguments and claims. Wattenberg first explores the effects that reading the newspaper has on voters today.
Did you know that Texas is consistently one of the worst states for voter turnout? This question leads you to think, why is voter turnout so low and what can we do to increase voter turnout? Different factors come into play such as demographics and legal constraints, but these factors also show us how we can apply new tactics to increase voter turnout.
In this paper, the reasons why young people do not vote will be explored and solutions as to how to get them to vote will be proposed. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), there are five main reasons why young people don’t vote. The graph presented uses census survey data from 2010 for citizens 18-24. The graph was broken down into two groups, those who are and are not in college. The first reason cited was being away from home or out of town, 23% of college students stated this and only 5% of people not in college stated this.
Voter turnout in the United States has been decreasing over the years. Statistical data has shown that voter turnout has decreased by five percent if you look at the previous three elections. The United States government is run by three government branches and voting is a major part of the United States it’s what makes United States different. The people are given a choice on who they want to vote as their representative, their president even though our vote does count the person with the most electoral votes wins the race.
We need a balance of the age groups in our country, i definetly agree with that. There are also things we could do to make that happen, working as a group plays a major role in that.
In this year’s presidential election, citizens have been given the option to choose between two main candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Many of their issues has surfaced social media, helping the majority of voters choose who they want to vote for this November. However, some individuals are choosing not to vote in the 2016 presidential election. Eric Liu, a political analyst and former speech writer, expresses his opinions on those who do not vote in his recent Ted Talk. In his speech, Eric Liu asserts that there is no such thing as not voting because by choosing not to vote, people are actually voting for those who have contrasting beliefs.
Without citizens voting, voices cannot be heard, and, “We…know that the level of voter population has been declining steadily since the early 1960s” (Austin Ramney p. 91). Participation has continued to decrease over the past several decades and due to lack of voting, there is a lack of diverse opinion that could ultimately aid the country in a better direction. Of this grouping of people it has been said that five categories make up this population: chronic nonvoters (often come from families who have never voted), those who believe they have no real say in government decisions, the young, the ones who feel intimidated by the voting process, and the ones who simply do not care (Curtis B. Gans). Blatantly, the first ...