Social Desirability Stereotypes

Since 1972, youth voter turnout has been on the decline. According to the Child Trends Databank, 50 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 participated in the 1972 presidential election (2015). Nearly three decades later, the percentage of young adults aged 18 to 24 who voted in the 2000 presidential election had dropped eighteen

The most important factor to evaluate if voter turnout has decreased is calculating and constructing the turnout rate, “when it equals the total number of votes cast divided by the eligible electorate” (McDonald and Popkin 2001, 963). This means that researchers rely upon the Bureau of Census statistics of the voting-age population (VAP) for the denominator. According to the Bureau of the Census, the VAP includes people ineligible to vote. This group of people consists of noncitizens, felons, and the mentally incompetent. The voting-age population also fails to include the citizens who are living overseas whose votes can count. The inclusion of ineligible populations in the VAP creates a negative skew to the data used to calculate voter participation. This, in turn, would make voter participation appear to be declining more than it actually is since, according to McDonald and Popkin, the population of those ineligible to vote, like noncitizens and felons, has been

Many scholars believe that falling civic organization membership and the general decline in our Social Capital has negatively impacted voter turnout.” (Kaufmann. 145) To summarize, people in the United States are “less involved” with other groups and other people as a whole, so it is only logical to feel they would be less involved or interest in our political and governmental future.

In the last half of the twentieth century, voter turnout in federal elections has declined. During the same period, voter turnout has been higher in presidential elections than in midterm elections.

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

The voter turnout rates can lead to a multitude of things like education and more accurate votes to the simple feel of completing a civic duty. The endgame of voter turnouts is the education of voters involved (Document F) as well as the accuracy of the vote being unquestionable (Document E). This increased voter turnout can lead to the connection of people through gathering, regardless of age (Document B). “...Civic virtue; it’s sentimentality,”(Document G). The previous quote shows that civic virtue can go a long way from not only yourself emotionally, but others too. Higher voter turnout rates cannot only improve a multitude of things in our country, but also can give our nation a legitimate name.

“From 1972 to 2012, citizens 18-29 turned out at a rate 15 to 20 points lower than citizens 30 years older” from this data we can conclude that age is a demographic that affects voter turnout (What Affects Voter Turnout). Voting laws such as those of identification or registration impact voter turnout. For example, the introduction of early voting was meant to increase voter turnout, but has in fact decreased turnout (What Affects Voter Turnout). In response to the argument that the system lowers voter turnout rate, one should take the many other variables that contribute to turnout into account.

There are many factors that have led to a culture of low voter turnout in the State of Texas. For example, Texas being a poor state with an uneven distribution of wealthy plays an important role. According to the text book, “the poverty rate is important because the poor and less educated, in the absence of strong parties to persuade them to go to the polls on Election Day, have a tendency to stay home”. Because the poverty rate is so high, it makes a big difference on voter turnout when the poor don’t

It was a cold November day as people gathered around their television, eagerly awaiting the news of the 2000 Presidential election. Would the victor be Texas governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore? It was a close election, with Bush only leading by 537 votes. “The 2000 presidential election was the first in 112 years in which a president lost the popular vote, but captured enough states to win the electoral vote.” (The Disputed Election) However, if the majority of eligible Americans would have voted, the outcome may have been different. Throughout American history, the number of voting participants diminishes. According to Warren E. Miller, “[n]early 63 percent of the voting-age populace went to the polls in 1960, when John F. Kennedy

A second way disenfranchisement laws affect the political voice of the wider community is through a phenomenon that can be referred to as collateral voter depression. Multiple studies have found that, where disenfranchisement laws are strict, the non-disenfranchised Black population votes at a lower rate than their otherwise similar Black counterparts in less restrictive states. Researchers controlled for variables such as the degree to which the state legislature’s racial make-up mirrors the racial makeup of the state population; segregation; concurrent elections (e.g. state-wide senatorial or gubernatorial elections); state-level voting policies such as same day registration and early voting; and individual-level characteristics, such as “age, income, gender, marital status, employment, residential mobility, children, and geographic location.” One of these studies, conducted in 2003, determined that “the probability of voting declines at a greater rate for African Americans compared to Caucasian Americans, when they live in states with restrictive criminal disenfranchisement laws, even for those who have never been convicted of a crime.” A 2016 study reached similar conclusions, finding that

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:

Obstacles to voting and the absent voting of pure independents are the reason of low turnout in the U.S. today, which may also have great influence both politically and legally. The voter turnout is the percentage of qualified voters who actually go to an election to cast a ballot. Overall, the voter turnout in America is low, with only between 51 and 57 percent of eligible voters going to polls in presidential elections from 2004 to 2012. The reason why America has such a low turnout is because of several obstacles in voting. The U.S. do not provide paid holiday for voters who are workers to vote or well-structured politics for different racial voters, other obstacles like advanced registration and absentee voting also make the voting more difficult for voters. The pure independents, who are unlike independent leaners or behaviour independents, are less well informed and less care about the election information and also definitely less likely to vote on the Election Day, they do not have any preference for any candidates or parties. As Hershey mentioned in his book,

There are six types of voter participation but voting is by far the most common form of political participation. People participate in elections because of their strong sense of civil duty they have but many people tend not to because political parties aren’t as forceful in getting it’s members to vote than in other places. People that vote are usually educated, older, and have a higher income, Throughout the history of the United States o America, many of the citizens have been suppressed in regarding their right to vote. Even though most of the citizens, that are old enough, are eligible to vote there is still low voter turn out. Low voter turnout is most commonly explained by apathy among citizens and problems with registration. Campaigns become more personalistic when they are for primary elections, there is a reliance on the candidate’s image, and there is decline in party identification. There is a lot of strategy involved in political campaigns. The overall strategy should be to appeal to voters in a party for that party’s nomination even if it means becoming more radical so that way you can attract the main group of that party. Once the nomination is secured it is better to have more centrist views to convince those of the opposite party whose votes are wavering, to vote for the candidate. The main reasons that

A transition to MMP at the federal level will result in marked improvement in a number of functional electoral areas. The first of which that will be addressed is that of greater voter turnout at elections. The majority of research conducted on electoral systems and voter turnout has supported the notion that voter turnout is greater in countries that have some form of proportional representation (PR) over countries with plurality or majoritarian electoral systems (Karp and Banducci 311). The average increase in voter turnout in countries with PR, as found across a number

Voter turnout for other age groups also increased in 1992, but those numbers were not considered to be a significant rise because age groups with citizens over 45-years-old already have generally high turnout. According to the U.S. Census' Current Population Reports, the 45 to 64-years-old age group was reported to have 75.3% of registered voters actually voting, while those in the 65 years or older category