Voting In The United States

As we live in a country that is home to many people of different backgrounds, age groups, genders, races, and religions, the factors of why people vote and who is more likely to vote

Factors such as competitiveness of upcoming elections and demographics play roles in determining voter turnout. Voting rates historically vary widely among states. In a given election year, many factors contribute to the number of state citizens going to the polls. In presidential elections, citizens of less competitive states go to the polls less often than in states where outcome is less certain. Election type also influences voter turnout. Fewer voters across all states turn out for primary elections and local elections. Among demographic factors, age and race influence voter turnout. Younger Americans and certain minorities, including Latin Americans and Asian-Americans, historically cast votes less frequently than older citizens,

Education is a noticable factor to consider when examining voter turnout. Those who are less educated about politics and their rights don't vote because they simply don't understand the imporatance of their vote in the first place. The more interested a person is in politics obviously the more likey they are to vote. Wealthier people are connected and constantly encouraged and reminded that their vote is important by community leaders and politicians. They also feel as if they have more at stake when it comes to taxes and public services, therefore they feel they have more reasons to vote. Whereas people with lower incomes are underepresented, disappointed and feel like nothing seems to change, the rich just gets richer and the poor gets poorer. The same applies for the age difference amoungst voters. Older people are more politically invovled than the younger voters.

Two demographic characteristics associated with voting are age and level of education. Statistics show that the older one is, the more likely they are to participate in voting and other government-related processes. However, in the hustle and bustle of young life, many young people do not vote. Now, with there being more young people than elders, this often relates to low voter turnout. Similarly, those with higher levels of education are more likely to vote than the under-educated. Now, think of this: America is filled with impoverished people that do not have high levels of education. In addition, the US has college as a necessity priced as a luxury; many people simply cannot afford this higher education and (like my friend Ryan) think "I won't vote because I don't know enough to do it."

Hypothesis 1: Voters with higher education (which generally results in higher household incomes) are more likely to vote.

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

While other countries well over sixty percent. The Factors that affect the level of voting in the United States are: Race, Ethnicity, income, and gender. The majority of the American citizens that votes are richer, better educated, and of the white race. The poor, uneducated, and minority have a tendency not to vote on Election Day.

Some of the factors include demographics such as citizens’ level of education, their age, their race, their socioeconomic status and many other factors that all affect voter turnout in American elections. (Hershey, 2015, p. 167)

In the election process, every citizen must be guaranteed a right to vote, one vote per person, no matter what income status, background, or state you reside in. No limitations must be placed on any individuals in order to allow everyone an effective opportunity to vote. In order to assure that everyone has the freedom to oppose certain individuals, frequent, fair, and free elections must be held. The first indicator I will be analyzing is limitations placed on the ability of individuals to participate within the U.S elections. The U.S organization demo’s states that the voter turnout rate for those who earn an income of less than $10,000 a year is 42.3% compared to that of 78.1% for those whose income is over $150,000 a year (2008). Overall, voter turnouts in the U.S on average are exceptionally lower than those of other democracies. As Michael McGrath (2015) points out “during the 2010 elections…only 41% of the voting age population within the U.S turned out at the polls… [compared to] other countries [where] it is not unusual for turnouts to be as high as 80%” (p.38). Additionally, amongst the 41% is an inaccurate sample which embellishes the size of some groups and underrepresents others (McGrath, 2015).These large discrepancy are a result of

In my opinion, each citizen has a civic and moral duty to vote. It is also a requirement, a responsibility, an obligation. It’s part of a bigger picture. I may speak passionately about voting rights, that’s only because as a naturalized citizen, I believe that I have been given this privilege. For me, it is certainly an honor to be able to exercise my free will to vote in this country. Conversely, being able to vote reminds me of how privileged I am in comparison to other countries, whose citizens have no freedom and/or a choice. This country certainly has come a long way, paving the way for all its citizens to be able to vote, when not so long ago, that few of America’s inhabitants could not participate in elections: among the excluded were

Looking at the voter turnout by education, we find that the more educated someone is, the more like that he/she would vote, because education makes people know the process of voting and the change they can make by voting.

Throughout the history of the United States, the right to vote is one of the most important

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

When it comes to race we have come a long way for voting rights. Since the voting barriers have been eliminated the African American citizens vote at least as often as white citizens with the same economic status. African Americans are more involved in politics than other minorities in the US and have the highest level of voter registration and participation. The Latinos only average about 49% of eligible voters to vote. One of the big problems for them is the language barrier, but with the Latino population increasing there is a rise of Spanish campaigning being done alongside the English.

II. Thesis: Encouraging college students to vote will benefit them in the future and also benefit their future jobs.