Voter Turnout

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

The right to vote, especially in a democracy, is a big deal. It’s one of the biggest ways that citizens can express how they feel about their government and what people they feel should lead it. New democracies that hold elections tend to have high voter turnout and enthusiasm. In America, we have one of the oldest democracies, and yet since World War 2, we haven’t had a presidential election with 65% or more of registered voters. The lack of voters makes it difficult to determine if our government is legitimate and really what the people want. Many ideas have been presented to help with solving this issue, but the most controversial has to be required voting. Citizens would have to vote, and if they don’t, they’d have to face some sort of consequence. In my opinion, required voting goes against what we stand for as a democracy, and our right to choose. Americans shouldn’t be required to vote because we have the right not to, and because of the increase in uninformed voting, unfavorable attitudes & political dissatisfaction.

A very controversial topic in the United States is whether or not Americans should be required to vote. Voting is a very essential piece to democracy, but many Americans today are not attending their voting location and supporting the candidate they feel is best. In recent elections, just 60% of registered voters casted their vote for a candidate. This is an issue that many people are not happy about, but whether or not there is reason to fix it is the other side to the case. Voter participation is an issue that has been going on for years, and no laws are in place currently to bring it up. Americans have been proud to live in a “free country”, and a law forcing citizens to vote may be against America’s principles. Compulsory voting should

Many voters are tied up in work during the daytime and evening. Extending the polling hours would help cover the votes of more working Americans. Another thing that may increase turnout, that some states are already adopting, would be to allow voters to register on election day. Many voters fail to register on time for various reasons and therefore do not vote. Various ad campaigns targeted at simply getting people out and voting would also make people interested in taking a more active role in elections.

Secondly, I feel it is similarly important to this paper to address what the true definition and what I mean when I use the term, national election. Through this paper I use the term, national elections, which refers to the presidential and congressional elections in the United States. Also, by studying the percentage of voter turnout in every national election, we determine if voter turnout is declining by, “A country is considered to have declining turnout if its average percentage levels in the last three decades have decreased by more than 2% compared to those of the first three decades (Ferrini, 2012).” Given that the US does meet this criteria, lets get into analyzing these competing theories.

The special election process is not fair and therefore not adequate, because it is more difficult for working-class citizens and minority voters to participate in the election. Currently, elections take place on weekdays during working times. This decreases voter turnout, as many people are unable to leave work to go vote. Furthermore, this disproportionately affects working-class citizens and people who earn hourly wages. Voter ID laws, while practical, further decrease voter turnout because people who do not own adequate identification or who are not aware of the need for identification are unable to vote. Next, the lack of widespread voting centers makes it more difficult for voters to reach a voting center, especially working-class citizens and urban dwellers, many of whom do not own cars or other forms of transportation. Lastly, the language barrier also makes it increasingly difficult for minorities to participate in the voting process, decreasing voter

Election Day is a standout amongst the most energizing days of the year. Our country meets up to choose a leader who will speak to us on the worldwide stage for the following four years. We will choose a leader that will remain for our rights as natives, students, representatives and businesses. We will choose a leader that will ideally stay faithful to their obligations. It is a major

But when voting booths are limited and people are forced to wait in long lines they tend to leave. To some that vote was faught for and needs to be preserved but for others they simply dont have the time of the day to leave work so if there is a line when that blue collar worker gets to his voting place he may not be able to afford to give up the appicable time to wait to vote becuase he has things at home or an even he has to be at. This a real problem the system faces today, in Arizonas 2016 primary certain poll places ran out of votes. Ultimately denying voters the right to vote. With new systems like internet voting being put in place in specific state primaries to determine if it woud be a possibility, but in the end this is just providing temporary fixes to a long term problem. Certain states in the Electoral College system get away with extending voting hours to appeal to blue collar demographics and raise voter turnout. This can be deemed to be not fair to other less important states that suffer the same issues the ones in swing states that have voting hours

The 2014 midterm voter turnout was considerably low owing to a number of reasons. One possible reason attributed to the low voter turnout is disillusionment with the leading party. Data collected from exit polls indicated that about 54 percent of citizens were opposed to President Barack Obama performance as the president(Ching, 2014). Further, 65% of them viewed the country as headed towards the wrong direction. Most voters were dissatisfied with the Republicans leaders and lacked confidence in the government to do

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

The U.S Constitution gives the states considerable latitude in the way of conducting elections. The American citizens have many opportunities to vote. However, a turnout in American elections has dramatically decreased over the past several decades. In order to address this issue, majority of states have allowed absentee voting reforms. These convenient reforms are thought to increase the voter turnout in the elections, as well as to reduce administrative costs.

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

The idea of making voting day a federal holiday is not necessarily new. In fact, on November 7, 2014, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a Bill to make election day a holiday. The name of Sanders’ bill was the Democracy Day Act. "Election day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote," Sanders said in a press release announcing the Democracy Day Act. "While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy." The Act proposed that it would amend the U.S. code to include "Federal Election Day, the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in each even-numbered year," The legislation is also part of a package of proposals

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

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)