Voting Behavior Analysis

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

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.

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.

Figure 1 above depicts the trend in voter turnout for general elections over a period of time. Compared to presidential elections in 2004, 2008, and 2012 as well as congressional or senatorial elections in 2006, 2010, and 2014, special elections for proposed constitutional amendments see significantly lower voter turnout ostensibly because the policies or issues are considered less significant. Regardless, excluding fluctuations the special elections voter count is consistently low which

“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

voter turnout and machine politics. The author goes into depth on how the gentrification that is going on in the city is only fueling the great racial divisions between neighborhoods and that this is having a very negative effect on the city. This connects to my research question as I am looking into how the racial divisions that make up many of these urban areas in some of the United States’ biggest cities are only made worse and worse by the process of gentrification and that this will only lead to an increasingly negative impact on the

Over the last few decades, we have seen a shift in voter participation, and involvement in the election arena rather it be national, state, and or local levels. According to Time Magazine, 2014 mid-terms voter turnout was at a 72 year low. At only 36.4% of U.S, eligible voters voted in 2014 mid-terms, down from 40.9% that voted in 2010 mid-terms. Analyst views the decline as the “millennial generation” coming into effect, which clearly indicates the age group (18-33) seems to have a significantly lower turnout rate compare to the older age groups. With less participation in state and local elections, we now face decisions such as elections in South Carolina being cancelled if the incumbent as no challenge, according to Cindi Scoppe associate editor at “The State”. This doesn’t provide ample explanation considering that the mid-terms elections do in fact represent a significant portion of state-level elections, which ultimately allows individuals to experience policies being implemented at a much greater effect. So the questions arise are we happy with single file candidates ascending to the elected office with no election? Is it the lack of interest or it doesn’t matter who’s in the seat? What does this say about the public responsibility for electing these people as our representatives to make decisions that impact our daily lives?

States have utilized their discretion over the time, place, and manner to alienate large segments of the voting population in the pass. From the Jim Crow era literacy tests and poll taxes, to modern-day voter ID laws, representatives have attempted to disenfranchise voters at every turn. Thought the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would have ideally rid America of these obstacles by this point, vestiges of the manipulation remain. The passage of years has brought a large degree of uniformity to election laws. For example, all states except Louisiana permit election by plurality in general elections. But several key distinctions prevail, and the desire for federalism here has created issues with suffrage. Voter ID laws are perhaps the most visible

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.

Voter suppression is not a “new” topic in regards to voting and voter turnout. Last year, Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama closed 31 driver license offices in rural areas of the state due to a budget shortfall. However, this raised concern and conflict to the fact that this made it difficult for a majority of Alabama citizens to vote.

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:

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, as well as election results, depend upon and are effected by several different factors. Everything from family status to beliefs about abortion can determine how a person will vote. In my presentation, however, I focused on three aspects that effect voter turnout and elections. I found, in my research, that a voter's age, sex and party identification greatly factor into how a person will cast his or her vote.

Today I will be explaining my own position on weather to keep the current voting age. I also will be giving reason on weather to lower or maintain the current voting age. Along with personal experiences I've seen in the past. If we were to lower the voting age it would increase the voting percentage. however most teenagers are not into politics. they can't even stay focused on school. From my own personal experiences, I've notice that when you give kids certain rights they will abuse the situation. We need to keep the kids focused on school.A big responsability such as voting is not a good idea.