National Voter Registration Day ( Nvrd ) Essay

In a democratic system it is vital that citizens engage in their civic duty of voting; only then can a proper governing body be chosen to represent the will of the majority. Abraham Lincoln got to the core of democracy when he stated, “the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” In the last 50 years of Canadian history we have begun to see a decline in voter turnout; ranging from 80% of citizens voting in 1962, gradually dwindling to 59.1% in the year 2008 (Dickerson, Flanagan & O'Neill, 2010). It is important to understand why

Many women and African American men had long dreamed to have the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civil Rights Movement. The freedom to vote is now held by a majority because of the fight by the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and the African Americans and women who fought for their right to

The ability to vote is one of the most cherished and fundamental rights in the United States of America. Unfortunately, the validity and reliability of our democratic system is constantly under attack by the real issue of voter fraud. While a solution for this problem hasn’t been decided upon, Republicans strongly advocate the usage of voter ID (which could be anything from a drivers license to a passport) to ensure that whomever is going to the polls is exactly who they say they are, and happens to still be alive. This common sense solution has come under attack by numerous Democrats, stating that this is merely a direct attack on minorities and the elderly who “can’t obtain a sufficient form of

Industrial Countries all over the world have seen a steady decline in voter participation; Great Britain is a great example of this. The country has witness turnout in elections falling slowly as time pass. However, the election of 2001 dropped the country from their average of 76% voter turnout to just a 59.4% turnout. Comparatively, Australia, a former colony of Britain, has enjoyed high and steady voter participation since 1924 because of the implementation of compulsory voting. This system has proven to be not only effective in bring voters to the polls, but also effective in improving Australia’s democracy. By evaluating these two countries with similar political structure; one can see the difference in compulsory voting turnouts

Freedom Summer appeared to be a voter registration project, which began in 1964. From passage of the Civil Rights Act to the expansion blacks voting in the south, it took time to achieve the desired effect. Since Freedom Summer was devised in Mississippi, its goals were to help African Americans register to vote, attend to the inequality matters such as education, and address the problem of disenfranchisement. The goals for this venture looked comprehensive, although Freedom Summer succeeded in accomplishing them admirably. An approach to such task began with the federal intervention to helping African Americans get voting rights , cruising smoothly into establishment of freedom schools, and challenging Mississippi’s whites’ delegates by claiming

More and more people are getting their news from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Tumbler and many more, and candidates are using this to their advantage. This election is probably one of the first were candidates have actually used social media sites as their direct communication line to potential voters. Social media today had gone from gossip and family pictures to a location for political strategy. Thanks largely to trumps regular social media first declarations and its actually working particularly with the younger voters. A study released last year from the Pew Research Center that Marissa Lang cited showed that “Among 18- to 29-year-olds, nearly two-thirds said social media is the most helpful means of learning new things about politics.” (Lang, 2016). Even if the candidate isn’t the one posting the video or message in the end it will still end up on social media. For example, Trump had announced his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the united states in South Carolina not on social media however it found its way there and spread like wild fire. This sent those who were outraged to respond in disgust and those who encouraged it to share it so that their friends could see and so on and so on. Even if those who shared it did it to

The vote is arguably the most important form of political participation in the United States. The right to vote has been a goal for many groups of people since the country’s inception, a struggle for some that continues to this day. A constantly evolving debate, there are currently six amendments to the United States Constitution directly related to voting. In contradiction to the efforts of our predecessors to secure voting rights, voter turnout has declined over the years. There has been a clear trend in voter turnout when comparing various statistics. Many factors contribute to the declining turnout of voters in the United States. This paper will briefly explore a few major landmarks in the history of voting in the United States, the trends

“This act flows from a clear and simple wrong, its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.... It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it, “said the president (Equal Citizenship and the Individual Right to Vote). The Voting Rights Act was “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom”—a law that, very exclusively, aimed to break down the legal barriers at the state and local governments’ level of authority that prohibited African Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

The researchers concluded that social pressure through the direct mail has an effective result, it increased voter turnout. Higher voting poll turnout was observed among those who received the letters promising to publish their turnout record to their household or their neighbor. This shows just how much social pressure can influence political participation among voters. "This remarkable increase in turnout, observe the authors, "exceeds the effect of live phone calls and rivals the effect of face-to-face contact with canvassers conducting get-out-the-vote campaigns." They argue that social pressure is most effective in increasing voter turnout than other methods. This study provides new insight into the phenomenon of voter mobilization and to what extent social pressure has on voter’s decision to turn out to polls and

Ratified in 1868, the fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection of all persons under the law. In the 1960’s though, African Americans were still being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. After the broadcast of 600 peaceful African Americans being attacked and beaten after attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, President Lynden Johnson decided it was time to create some legislation to prevent incidences such as this from happening in the future. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been hailed as some of “the most far-reaching bills on civil rights in modern times” (Schmidt et. al. 2010, 98). At that time in history, they were exactly what the country

Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines democracy "as a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by the people" (www.merriam-webster.com). But the one big problem is that "We the people" are not exercising their "supreme power" to determine the U.S. government. Less than half of the eligible electorate showed up at the polls for the 1996 U.S. presidential election. While lower turnout has marred previous presidential elections, 1996's voter turnout dipped below 50 percent for the first time in more than 30 years. It appears that the people's increasing cynicism about politicians that they lie to get elected and the perception that people have no respect or confidence in the

While it has been one of the hottest topics in the election policy for the last several years, its legacy actually extends back to 1950 which is when South Carolina first request that voters show some type of identifications document at the polls. Back then, no photo was required, they needed only any document that bear the voter’s name. After that, in 1970, Hawaii took on the same approach as South Caroline toward voting requirement. However, in all these states, they were still able to cast a regular ballot if they did not have the requested ID under some provisions (National Conference of State Legislature). After that, many other states started to adopt the same policy, but instead of requesting for photo ID, they actually become stricter

Why vote? This is a major question among many young Americans today. America's youth, does not take the time to read articles, observe the news, or pay attention to presidential debates and campaigns due to their busy schedules. This creates two problems. First, young voters have little knowledge of current issues in the election. Also as a result, they are unaware of the importance of voting. Each presidential election stirs up an old controversy of whether to vote or not to vote. There are many young people who think that voting is not important; I believe that it is. By voting you are exercising your right as an American to voice your opinion, and young Americans need to become aware of this.

The theme comes long, because within Facebook are already wondering for some time whether they should influence the vote of the people to try to stop certain politicians. That does not mean that they have, and the social network and has denied flatly, although it has failed to stop the media and political storm . What exactly is happening?

Referred to as the “Facebook election” the 2008 US presidential election, and the lesser-known 2007 election campaign of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, dubbed 'Kevin 07 ', set a precedent as to how one could use the dynamic and ever-growing platform of social media to their electoral advantage. It is pertinent to note that Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, was among Barack Obama 's key strategists. Though quite older than the average Facebook user, Obama captured the youth vote, having around 2 million supporters on Facebook, with his Republican rival John