Decline In Voter Turnout

Texas has been reported to have the lowest number of voters in the presidential election in the US. In 2010, a survey conducted by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at the UT at Austin revealed that Texas ranked last in the nation in voter turnout. It is recorded to be ranked 42nd in voter registration and 49th in the number of people who contacted public officials (amarillo). One of the main reason for low voter turnout in Texas is legal constraints. Compared to other states, Texas is one of the restrictive states in its voting laws regarding things such as the poll tax, women suffrage, the white primary and restriction on military vote. Moreover, more than 4 million people in Texas live in poverty. Education and income are important determinants of electoral participation. Therefore, low turnout rate is inevitable when poverty rate in Texas is high. Aside from that, Texas’s political culture is one of the main reason that contributes to low voter turnout.Texas is a mix of the traditionalistic and individualistic. Their political values and belief discourage participation (Maxwell). Many Texan believe that their vote plays a little role in politics. Texas keeps on passing laws that discourage participation and cooperation. Overall, the absence of political will serves to exhaust the voting energy in minorities. The voter turnout in Texas can be improved by providing better

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

A voter can be defined as an individual who votes, or has the right to vote, in elections. Voting behaviour is explained using the concepts of expressive voting and strategic voting. A rational voter would act more strategically, that is, the voter would vote to produce an election outcome which is as close as possible to his or her own policy preferences, rather than voting on the basis of party attachment, ideology, or social group membership (expressive voting). Strategic voting has become more important than voting on the basis of political cleavages (expressive voting), so voters have become more rational in their approach, however there is always an element of expressiveness in their behaviour. Political parties were initially formed to represent the interests of particular groups in society however, as these parties became more universal in the appeal of their policy programmes, voting behaviour shifted from expressive to strategic. This essay explores the reasons behind the declining importance of political cleavages, and the rise of strategic voting.

Voting in elections is the most important form of participation in American politics. Even though this is true, America has a very low voter turnout. This is defined as the percentage of eligible voters who actually show up to vote. Only 6 out of 10 Americans vote in the presidential election, and it is even lower for midterm and local elections (Ginsberg, 306, 2013). Voter participation today is substantially lower than it was in the 19th century. Although, the number of people that could vote was lower than it is now, considering that women and other minorities were not allowed to vote until later in the century (Schulman, n.d). Age, gender, education, income, ethnicity, and religious affiliation all have differing effects on voter turnout rates. Education and income are the top factors that determine whether someone votes or not. Someone with a higher income and educational knowledge about voting are more likely to vote verses someone with a lower income and no education. If citizens do not have any knowledge about the voting process or candidates, they become discouraged and do not turnout to vote. Also, Texas is one of the states with the lowest voter turnout rates in the country and ranks in the bottom third of voter participation (Ginsberg, 821). Reasons for this are because Texas has a lower average age than the national average, and young citizens are more likely not to vote. Also, Texas has a political culture that is traditionalistic and individualistic. In a traditionalistic political culture, the political and economic elite discourage voting. In an individualistic political culture, the people choose not to vote because of “ real or perceived corruption in government” (Ginsberg, 821). Texas has a tradition of keeping a decentralized government, which causes numerous elections. Voters become overwhelmed with the

Essentially, vigorous voter turnout is very paramount to a healthy economy. In most cases, low turnout is attributed to low participation in political issues and the misguided notion that voting in one candidate will have less impact on public policy. In the United States, voter participation keeps on fluctuating which has been an area of concern especially in midterm elections. More specifically, the 2014 midterm election reported the lowest voter participation in a period of more than seven decades. This paper delves into analyzing the reasons for the low voter turnout in 2014 midterm elections in the United States. The paper will also provide recommendations on how voter turnout may be increased in the 2016 general elections.

I believe that the low voter turnout can be a good and bad thing. It allows the people that enjoy the political aspect of voting and allows the people ,that are educated on the election, vote for the best man or woman. The bad part of low voter turnout is that this means that there are not enough people out there in the United States that are educated to the point in which they can vote for the next president and so forth. The people that do not usually do not vote are young, low income, and the biggest one less educated. I believe that if you do not understand the full grasp of the election and what it can have on the future of the United States, then I would not recommend that you should vote for the next U.S. president. I would like to summarize

United States. The question that Roberts tried to answer was, “Why is voter turnout so low in the United States?” One of the basic premises of the article was that high voter turnout was a good and desirable thing. He argued that that high voter turnout is crucially important and something that should be sought after in presidential elections. The article also presented several possible solutions to the problem of low voter turnout.

Our American Government text mentions 7 different reasons for exceptionally low voter turnout in the United States. These reasons range from not having mandatory elections to when the elections are held, but there are two reasons that I find to be the most influential.

In my opinion, I believe that low voter turnout is problematic for U.S. democracy. I believe that should be viewed as a symptom of an unhealthy democracy because it essentially represents a democracy where the people do not believe in the system that is established, they do not believe that their vote actually matters, or they do not feel informed or comfortable to make their voice heard. These are just a few of the potential reasons for why there is such a low voter turnout in the U.S.

Franklin. The theory proposed in this article is “elections that do not stimulate high turnout among young adults leave a ‘footprint’ of low turnout in the age structure of the electorate” (Franklin, 2004). The methodology involved examine the voting patterns of 22 countries that have held elections continuously since 1945. This number total 356 elections and provides a strong pool of data to draw conclusions from. The results brought forth a number of different variables that impact voter turnout. Such variables are the frequency at which elections are held - the closer together equates to a decrease in turnout, to the impact of lowering the eligible voting age. Interesting any country that lowered the voting age can expect to see a drop of 3.8% in a span of 40 years (Franklin, 2004). Additionally the analysis discovered that the Baby Boomers, which earlier were stated to be 20% more active voters in Canada, are 7% less likely to vote globally than their parenting generation. The conclusion for this article is that there is a reduction in the competitive nature of elections (less likely to bring about policy changes), and a decrease in the age when voters become eligible. Both of these declines generate an environment where the younger

During the national elections in the US, the voter turnout often has been noticeably scant. People who have majored in political science and those who remained in that field discuss whether or not the minuscule turnout for the presidential election is acceptable for the country or no. As it’s discussed before, this is one incident where facts can be brought out for each individual to decide on their own if they accept the facts as a positive or negative. With that being brought to the forefront of your memory, I will spend the rest of this essay talking in apropos how it can be considered both positive and negative.

Data used for this term paper was obtained from Houghton Mifflin Company through the 1996 Voter's Data Set found as part of the Crosstabs package. The dependent variable (rows) I chose to highlight the 1996 U.S. presidential election voting pattern was the Final Voting Choice. The independent variables (columns) I chose were personal traits such as education, income, age, religious affiliations, race, and gender. The data made available by the Crosstabs program was compiled in a statistically scientific way by a national survey of citizens before and after the 1996 election. The objective of this research is to determine which of the personal traits of the electorate has a positive, negative, or an indifferent impact on voter turnout. Therefore, I have made the following five assertions in the below listed hypotheses:

The two major parties in the United States political system, Democratic and Republican, have many the differences about the policies and the political positions such as taxes, the role of government, gun control, gay rights, immigration, etc. Those differences are influenced by all of the American people’s political ideology in society. Absolutely, every single person in the United States have their own choices for those problems. Therefore, each party has its special groups that support for their policies, and it also shows the people’s expectation on each party.

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

Liberal democracies majority from the Western World which are established, have identified a series of patterns where there is an exponential decrease within the participation during the electoral turnout ever since the mid twentieth century. For example, Hay (2007), claims that for a state to maintain a level of legitimacy it must include participation to some extent. This is since levels are declining by such a rapid amount that its adequate to cause a sign of concern. A small percentage of electoral turnouts from this considerably small population have raised concerns for the assistance of a democracy with many examples both past and present. Although this may bring alerts, there is also a lot more to a democracy than the number of voters and the turnout. Nigeria for example is a poorly governed democracy whereby the government rule in a carefree and bad manner not improving the motivation within the citizens thereby making people less likely to participate in political activities. Apathy is seen as a stabilising force perhaps indicating trust in the system or plain disinterest in politics. (Blaug and Schwarzmantel, 2016).