Benefits Of Absentee Voting

Nearly forty percent of people will not vote for president. If people had to vote, this number could rise. According to www.electproject.org, voter turnout has hovered at around sixty percent for decades. With voting being such an important thing, you’d expect this number to be higher, and it should be.

Getting to polling locations can be a hassle, especially for the disabled, the sick, and people without transportation. In addition, voting becomes even more difficult for

“All U.S citizens at the age of 18 or older must be registered and vote on all election days. All businesses must schedule employees paid time off throughout the day (minimum 2 hours during business hours), or the business may close for the entire day. All ballots must be mailed-in, turned-in, or casted by 8pm local time zone. Anyone who objects to vote on voting day will be penalized with a fine and sentenced to jail time.”

For most people that have jobs, working voting into their work schedule and their home life can be difficult, and some younger voters that don't care about politics as much are not going to get up, figure out where their polling station is, and drive to said polling station. My home state of california does this, and it has been very

The U.S. uses a system called the electoral college to elect the president and each state has a number of electors equal to the number of representatives they have in Congress. After the polls close on election day, these electors decide who they are going to cast their votes for based on the popular votes in that state. Most states will cast all of their electoral votes for only one candidate but some will allow their electors to split their votes. Casting out one candidate is unfair as it wipes out the votes of almost half of that state because one candidate did a little better. Popular vote does not equal presidency because the choices are made by electoral colleges and not the American people. For this reason, people have come to believe that, whether they vote or not, it doesn’t affect

The turnout in American elections is low because a lot of Americans have huge barriers and obstacles that prevent them from voting. The United States, unlike almost every other democracy, has no national list of eligible voters. The voter rolls are maintained by counties and towns and their partisan elected officials. Since 2000, (a time of very close national elections) state legislatures have considered a wide variety of ways to limit the expansion of voting rights. (Hershey, 2015, p. 156)

There are several forms of absentee voting that are believed to improve overall voting quality. Permanent absentee voting is one of them. This particular rule allows the voter to vote absentee without requesting an absentee ballot for each election (Sabato 2013, 98). Generally, permanent absentee voting was available for military voter and individuals with disabilities in order to increase certain categories of voters. Currently, According to National Conference of State Legislatures, every state permits an absentee ballot to certain voters. While 27 states allow no-excuse absentee voting, in other 21 states the excuse is required. Eight states including Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey and Utah offer voters the option to register for no-excuse permanent absentee voter status. Five states such as Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri and West Virginia, allow permanent absentee voter status for voters with disability. While Alaska and Delaware offer

As an African-American male in the United States of America, the opportunity to exercise my constitutional right to vote in the 2016 Presidential election was an honor. During this time, I was a first-year college student in another county in Texas; therefore, I decided to use an absentee ballot early on in the voting process. However, voting by an absentee ballot was a concern because I wanted to make sure that my vote counted. Nevertheless, as a new voter, I proceeded with filing in my absentee ballot, but still skeptical about the counting process. On November 8, 2016, imagine my surprise when I learned that Donald J. Trump was the next President of the United States of America. My initial reaction was “what the bleep is going on in

There could be so many reasons why the voter’s turnout is so low. Most of them decline, because they have no public interest for elections. Back before the Constitution was sign African American couldn’t vote, it was called white privileges and women did have the right to vote. So I thing that still plays a part in the African American communities. Then most of them feel that their vote does not matter anyway. American have no motivation to vote like they once did. The voter turnout in the United States is low due to the fact that voters either choose not to vote, they are not a citizenship, or they have been in prison, and or other legal barriers that makes them ineligibility. A large percentage of the individuals are not voting because political

Voter turnout is always an important aspect when it comes to a measurement of participation from the citizens for the election. Compared to other democracy countries, the U.S. does not have a high voter turnout for elections. Against other developed countries that have a democracy government, the U.S. ranked 31 out of 34 in voter turnout (Long). The percent that the U.S. has for its voting-age population that participated in the most recent national election was 55.7% while the percent of registered voters that participated was higher at 86.8% (Desilver). There are various reasons why the U.S. voter turnout is how it is. Different countries conduct their elections in numerous ways that make them unique. The U.S. uses an electoral college for the national election. Americans have often discussed disapproval for this system since it is not a guarantee that their vote will

Another way to address low voter turnout is to lump elections together. According to a text (Dye & MacManus, 2015), when city and county elections are held separately from national elections they usually produce turnouts of 25 to 35 percent. When local voter turnout is low the implications extend much further than the ballot box. American lives are busy and continue to get busier each year, that’s why some states have adopted a vote by mail system. A vote by mail system would eliminate the need to get to a polling place during certain hours and wait in long lines. According to an article (Office of the Comptroller City of New York, 2016), Washington saw significant and immediate increases in turnout after transitioning to all mail elections

Voter turnout can be improved with many positive solutions, such as making registration easier, simplifying voting, and having more involvement with the election, that many americans feel the election lacks, that impacts voter turnout. The percentage of eligible voters who cast votes during an election is called voter turnout. Voter turnout in America has been decreasing as the years go by. In the 1800’s voter turnout was averaging an average in the high 70% range, and in the 1900’s, voter turnout was averaging an average in the 60% range. For as the twentieth century, Americans have been averaging an average 50% range. The 2016 election recently had a higher voter turnout than the past elections with a turnout of 58% out of 232 million eligible voters. 2016 presidential voter turnout may have been popular due to more people pushing others to go and vote or it may have been due to the two candidates that were drastically different in many aspects. Many other countries such as Belgium, Australia, and Turkey have voter turnouts above 80%. Australia, has such a high voter turnout, due to having it on a Saturday and making it mandatory for them, if they do not vote they have a fine of A$20.

Many United States citizens on election date choose not to vote for any of the candidates. In the United States, mandatory voting is not a law like in other countries, and this has been an argument for many years. People think elections cannot be fair if a group of individuals fails to go out and exercise their right to vote.

Apparently, African Americans and Hispanics are “more likely than whites to report transportation problems and bad time and location as reasons for not getting to the polls, while white voters were the most likely to cite disapproval of candidate choices (Weeks).” The surveys state that if a white citizen decides not to vote it is because they don’t like the choices rather than having obstacles preventing them from voting like African Americans and Hispanics do. All in the voting process requiring identification may not have any effect on voter turnout if people poor or not would simply choose to vote by

Voting is a vital portion of conducting everyday life. Americans have more freedom than many other people in countries around the globe; therefore, it is pertinent to express that freedom in many ways. Up until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, many people of color, gender, and all other classifications in the United States fell under one umbrella: not having the ability to vote. (massvote.org) As far as Americans having the ability to vote, 218,959,000 people have the eligibility to vote as of August 16th, 2015. Out of that significantly large number, 146,311,000 are actually registered to vote. (statisticbrain.com) This large gap in people with the eligibility to vote, and actual registered voters, is very alarming. As an American, it is the right and duty of a citizen to exercise all attainted rights by voting in all elections, even if the favored party seems to lose to no avail. (theodysseyonline.com)