Voter turnout, as well as election results, depend upon and are effected by several different factors. Everything from family status to beliefs about abortion can determine how a person will vote. In my presentation, however, I focused on three aspects that effect voter turnout and elections. I found, in my research, that a voter's age, sex and party identification greatly factor into how a person will cast his or her vote.
Men and women differ greatly in many aspects of life, and voting is one of them. In the 1992 Presidential elections, women were found by the U.S. Census' Current Population Reports to have voted two percent more than men did. Of the 62% of women who did vote, more were found to have supported Bill Clinton rather than George Bush. the 1992 voter turnout numbers among white, African-American, and Hispanic women reflect the success of movements to increase female participation in the voting process. Programs like the League of Women Voters actively recruit women to "get out the vote." Today, the League also encourages men to vote, and men are welcomed as members. In its beginning, however, the League's sole purpose was to educate women about their rights as citizens and to discourage the popular belief that politics was a husband's job. Men have always possessed the right to vote, while women gained their voting privileges relatively recently. In general, women vote more than men do today because they are still catching up for lost time and votes.
Having already scrutinized voter turnout according to sex, the next obvious categorization of the population is age. In the 1992 elections, the greatest increase in voter turnout out of all categories was among the age groups of 18 to 24-year-olds and 25 to 44-ye...
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...64% of African-Americans, and 37% of all Hispanics. Although 42% of Hispanics voted with the Independent Party in 1996, the majority of women and African-Americans supported Democrats.
In conclusion, the Elections team did in fact find a certain amount of chaos within the election process. However, when voter turnout and election results are broken down into minute categories, such as sex, age, and race, the chaos becomes difficult to find. The numbers that I found in my research were in fact quite predictable, especially during the past four decades. On a broader scale, elections depend upon conditions such as the economy, world politics, and general happiness of the public. These factors are found to be generally difficult to predict, and suddenly chaos becomes an integral part of the typically predictable and often unsuspenseful voting and elections process.
"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.
Before getting into these theories I feel it is important to provide a few important definitions, as well as, some important information to assure we are all on the same page. First, I would like to address the term, voter turnout. According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary (voter) turnout is the number of people who go to or participate in s...
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.
In the early 20th century, many Americans perceived woman as unskilled and deficient, due to this woman have never gotten the chance to prove how they can positively affect society. Document A, Supports Woman states; “They still love their homes and their children just the same as ever, and are better able to protect themselves and their children because of the ballot”. If woman were given the right to vote it would not only have helped the society by having more opinions, but it would have also helped women protect themselves and their children by voting for things like better education. Supports Woman explains how giving woman the right ...
After a long history of struggle for suffrage movements and human rights, within the late 1900s, women became significant electoral voters. Together, people joined in forming grassroots movements and non-governmental organizations devoted to improving conditions for women. Initially, politics had been viewed as an exclusive masculine realm, but now all genders and races had basic human rights, including the right to vote.
Perhaps the greatest threat that FPTP poses to democracy is the appalling discrepancy between election results and the actual percentage of votes cast for each political party. In the FPTP syste...
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...
The Web. The Web. http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP21Green.pdf>. Narod, A. Youth Voting Stats « YDA – Young Democrats of America." YDA Young Democrats of America.
"Women Get the Vote." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Et Al. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2001. U.S. History in Context. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
This phenomenon can be explained with feminist theories which focuses on inequality of power between men and women in terms of unequal distribution of political power. The best example of this inequality are numbers that speak for themselves. The US has never had a women president in the history, and even though women comprise majority of U.S population, their number in political offices are significantly lower than men. The reason behind underrepresentation of women in politics lies in the notion that women are not strong enough to hold a powerful position. Because of women 's underrepresentation a lot of men’s issues and policies are over-emphasized, while women’s concerns remain unattended. However, women’s concerns and policies often don’t just affect women, but the entire families. For instance, the issue of child care or maternal leave. In many families, one parent (in most cases women) is forced to leave the job and take care of a child due to the lack of childcare, or very short maternal leave. Strengthening women’s right and addressing barriers to political participation are critical to achieving gender equality and women empowerment. I believe that the issue of low number of women in politics is just a fragment of a much larger issue of inequality relating to political, economic, and social status. Some of the solutions to the problem include increasing women participation and leadership in civil society by providing skill building and leadership training for women. Women should join activists groups advocating for women’s right and equality on many different platforms. Equal pay, equal access to certain job positions would also facilitate equality that would increase the number of women in political positions. Most importantly, more women should vote since we create the majority of US population, and if women unite and vote they will have a
Before the 1920s men and women were thought to have two separate roles in life. People believed women should be concerned with their children, home, and religion, while men took care of business and politics. In 1920 there were significant changes for women in politics, the home, and the workplace. When the 19th amendment passed it gave women the right to vote. “Though slowly to use their newly won voting rights, by the end of the decade women were represented local, state, and national political committees and were influencing the political agenda of the federal government.” Now a days it’s normal for women to be involved in politics and it’s normal for women to vote. Another drastic change
...ions run on the base of widespread and equal suffrage is fundamental. A further Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women was approved by the United Nations in 1979, and well-established the right of women to take part on an equal base in all phases of democratic government. This international consensus has been tested on many occasions, and there are still a number of states where women are not granted the right to vote, or at least not granted it on an equal basis with men. The establishment and the preservation of women's suffrage thus remains an active focus of political activism across the globe.
Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way for the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women to have that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s. The focus of The Women’s Liberation Movement was idealized off The Civil Rights Movement; it was founded on the elimination of discriminatory practices and sexist attitudes (Freeman, 1995).
Cole, Margaret. "The Woman's Vote: What Has It Achieved?." Political Quarterly 80.(2009): S117-S125. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2012.
As a whole, only about half of the population eligible to vote does so. In the election of our forty-third president, fifty one percent of those eligible voted. The young adult age group, 18-29, makes up the smallest part of that group. Seventeen percent of eligible voters between this age group voted (Lewis). In the latest presidential election, 30 million 18-30 year olds did not vote (Anthony, Skaags). Only a small percentage of voters came out of this age group-the smallest; however, it is not uncommon to see members of the group participating in protests or other complaint oriented activities with the intent of making change. Change is able to come easier than most people think.