Voter apathy

United States has grown immensely over the last two hundred years, and is now one of the largest countries in the world. The large size contributes to the unequal distribution of political resources across the nation. These two variables lead to low voter turn out, in turn decrease effectiveness in political participation. But what does political participation mean these days? The basic forms are voting in local, state, and national elections. There are also other ways, like working for a political

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

has cast a legally valid ballot. If countries have a singular goal of simply increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting could remedy this problem and it should be more accurately defined as being compulsory voter turnout (Lever, 2010). The belief that compulsory voting inherently improves democracy is misleading (Lever, 2010). Canada should not force its citizen’s to vote because other then increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting would

Recently state and federal legislators have been discussing voter identification laws, also known as voter ID laws. This issue is controversial because it can lead states to deny voters a vote without an approved ID. On one hand, some supporters of ID laws argue that these laws are preventing criminals from committing fraud. From this perspective, the laws are protecting the value of a vote and what it means to actually participate in an election vote. On the other hand, however, people argue that

Former Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon finds the declining turnout of younger voters alarming, saying in an interview with the guardian that: ‘My fear is that as the older, more regular voters die, we will be left with a significant number of people for whom voting is neither a habit, nor a duty’ (Wintour, 2005). Hoon is a big supporter of compulsory voting and proposes either a fine

Since the turn of the twenty first century, in Canada voter turnout has made a significant and consecutive decline. In the last five federal elections on average only sixty-one per cent of eligible voters voted. If each eligible citizen voted in an election the government would be on par with the primary interests of the people. The easiest way to achieve this objective is by implementing a compulsory voting system. Mandatory voting systems are appealing because all citizens are affected by decisions

living conditions of their environment. The challenge, therefore, is for the school to help the youth develop reflective attachments to their nation and a sense of kinship with citizens in all parts of the world (Banks, 1990). Citizenship education is seen as one of the oldest subjects in the school curriculum and it continues to be on the radar screen of contemporary curriculum of the school for the purpose of educating the youth on civic rights and responsibilities. Citizenship education is the

there had been a lot of pressure to vote. As a Xavier University student, I witnessed this pressure as I saw people meeting to discuss the importance of voting, politically affiliated clubs holding forums to discuss the best strategies to influence voters, and the Student Government Association providing free shuttle rides that took students to the voting stations. This is why claims about the disengagement of young people baffle me. Many people, especially the older generation, argue that Millennials

The Founding Fathers worked to create an equal nation without the chance of an oppressive ruler, such as King George the Third. They hoped to balance the power and make sure that the nation was never in the hands of a leader like him. To accomplish this goal of equal representation they created the Electoral College. This created a system where Americans when voting for the President, weren’t voting directly for the candidates and were voting for electors that would cast votes to represent their

to start taking action as soon as they are old enough. However, young people need to be educated on politics and be firm in their beliefs before delving into the world of politics. In recent years the youth have shown a trend of disengagement and apathy toward political involvement. According to “The Good Citizen”, a book written by Russell J. Dalton, political analysts and politicians agree that the youth are losing interest in politics and