I believe that at some point a Democracy cannot be sustained when a relatively few amount of people are involved within the political process. The purpose of democracy was to give every single citizen of a country a voice. The “one man, one vote” slogan has been viewed by some as a reality and others as an illusion. Not all citizens agree with their views on our democracy and our government. Thus, when there is a lot of disagreement in the views and ideals of the political process, the chances of having more people not involved in politics increases. We all know that the United States of America has a very weak voter turnout. When the United States is compared or ranked with other Democratic countries, the U.S. tend to rank or be classified …show more content…
For example, in one country, they fine citizens who do not participate in the electoral process unless they indicate a reason why they are not voting. This is a pretty interesting method. We clearly see it in the United States with jury duty. All adults in the United States occasionally receive a jury duty notice that requires us to attend to court. However, many people can file an exempt from this, such as noncitizens, and other special groups that may be exempt from doing so. Failure to at least reply with a reason why they did not show up could lead to an eventual citation and even arrest. Thus, when most people see a jury duty notice for the first or second time, they try to handle it before they get into trouble. Jury duty is handled with strict laws and it is thus an effective method of engaging with most citizens. If the United States would handle the voting process in the same way that jury duty is handled, I believe that the voter turnout would highly increase. I would support the United States making a law that would make the voting process more demanding on citizens. Even if their answer is “nobody” or “I don’t care,” I would still agree with having those options for voters so that we could get a real image of what our citizens feel as a
Juries exists in the criminal trial to listen to the case presented to them and, as a third, non-bias party, decide beyond reasonable doubt if the accused is guilty. For the use of a trial by juror to be effective, no bias should exists in the jurors judgments, the jurors should understand clearly their role and key legal terms, and the jury system should represent the communities standards and views whilst upholding the rights of the accused and society and remain cost and time effective.
Inside a room where life or death decisions are made, twelve men sit with wandering thoughts. The made up minds of some jurors are to send a boy to his death without a second thought, but one other juror may change that. Inside of the play Twelve Angry Men written by Reginald Rose, Juror 8 has the persuasive evidence to change the minds of his fellow Jurors and save a boy from his execution. The other Juror’s seem like they won’t budge with their mind set on the decision of guilty, but after Juror 8 proves his thoughts on the decision of innocent, he may just be able to save a young life.
For this essay I asked my Grandma Diane questions about jury duty. She has never served on a jury but she has been summonsed to questioning to possibly be on one. When she got the summons letter she wasn’t excited, “ I didn’t want to do it, because I didn’t feel that I [had] the right to judge anyone else,” and didn’t really want to go. She got asked questions like, “Could you be impartial? Could you be fair? If “this” happened would you say that the person is guilty? Are you related to the person/persons involved? Have you heard anything about the case?,” the attorneys asked these questions because they wanted to make sure they had a jury that would make an unbiased decision in the court case. My grandma said that, “It made [her] respect what
One study ranks the U.S. 120th on a list of 169 nations compared on voter turnout (Pintor, Gratschew, & Sullivan, 2002). While during the last decade many initiatives have been undertaken to increase voter participation, concerns
This information is from document G. Although some people argue for compulsory voting because they want the U.S to stay a democracy, some people who don't want that could damage the economy. This would cause chaos one way or another. In some other countries they have penalties for people who don't vote and that causes more overall betrayal of our beloved country. Right now more people are interested in ISIS than our Congress.” Italy ranks low among western countries in political satisfaction and voters have unfavorable attitude towards their electoral system.”
I believe that the low voter turnout in most elections is appalling. Why do people want to willingly give up their voice in our governmental system? Fewer than 37% of all eligible voters actually cast a ballot in the last presidential election. Many claim ignorance of political issues, but I believe that must stem from laziness. If people would
Americans are fortunate enough to have the right to vote, so we should take opportunity to be heard. “...many Americans do not vote” (Doc BE). Some Americans do not take the chance to vote. For example, “Since World War II, no presidential election has ever involved 65% or more of registered voters!” (Doc BE). Voting is important because, “People express their consent or disapproval in many different ways” (Doc BE).
Hearts sinking, fists clenching, frustration building up, American voters prepare for yet another painful presidential election. American elections are notorious for candidates bashing each other, constant television and telephone ads, and above all, shockingly low voter turnout. The list of reasons citizens do not vote goes on forever, but at the top of this ever-long list is one fact: voters in America simply do not believe that their votes matter in the grand scheme of things.
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.
The Selection and Role of a Jury in a Criminal Trial This assignment focuses on how a jury is selected and its role in a
After seeing many problems in the U.S. democracy, the major issue would be the amount non-voters in the U.S. This is an issue that is gradually affecting the political process in the U.S. especially in the present election right now. The reason that non-voters are a concern would be because citizens are not contributing to their political engagement, which causes votes to only come from one specific area. There are various types of ways to address the amount political engagement for individuals. For example, government officials can “eliminate voting barriers, boost registration, and improve unions”(McElwee, 2014). One way to improve the issue of non-voters would be to make voting simple and allow people to vote online because we are a country
Since the United States of America established itself as its own self-governing country, one of the things that caused it to be salient and stand out from other countries is its relentless insistence on functioning as a democracy. Wars and protests have occurred so that every type of people, whether it was women or African Americans, may be granted the right to vote. Having a say in the American government is an honor and a privilege bestowed upon American citizens when they reach the age of eighteen. However, in recent years, statistics have shown that voter turnout and participation in recent elections has been rapidly and steadily declining, causing the United States to have the lowest voter participation in the world (“Is the System
Jury nullification is when a jury acquits a defendant who it believes is guilty of the crime he is charged (Hickey, 2010. p. 370). This is because the jury chose to ignore the facts of the case and the judge instructions, and based his or her decision on personal opinion. If we are going to allow jury nullification we may as well not take up the tax-payer’s money to even take it to trial. Nullification – The act of making a law null and void (nullifying). For example, during prohibition, many juries found defendants innocent, even when the state had proven its case, because they did not think the law should exist. State legislatures also have nullified federal laws within their borders, creating a nullification crisis for the federal
Within the court proceedings, the first reality video explains the process of jury selection, or what they would call jury “rejection.” They think of it as rejection because they are not really picking the juries they are rejecting the ones they do not need. What I knew before watching this film is that juries are a set of citizens chosen to appear in court to hear and help come to a verdict about a trial. Somethig new that I learned was that jurors must fill out a questionaire so that the attorney are easily able to pick who they would want on the panel.
Serving on a jury is a civic duty and an American tradition. However, some people view jury duty as a chore or as an event that negatively interrupts their lives. Some independent studies have shown that even jury duty has a devastating effect on married life. Due to this and other extraneous situations, there are only a few people who actually want to serve on a jury. This may lead to efforts by potential jurors to, in some way get out of their duty in a jury. What we know of as the current jury duty system should be changed so citizens are not forced to serve in this capacity and can still be regarded as a responsible civilian. As per the status quo, a trial jury is a constitutional right, a jury of ones peers or equals. However,