Voter Turnout Decrease

271). Voter turnout at the polls has been on a steady decline for many years. Since 1960, when the voter turnout was at 60% of Americans who were qualified to vote, the percentage of voters has declined to 51% in 2000 (Luttbeg, p. 65). The numbers have been decreasing over a period where nothing has gone wrong in the Electoral College, and each President won the popular vote, as well as the majority of Electoral votes. However, it has been up until the most recent election that this issue has been challenged once more by a large margin of difference between the popular vote and the electoral

Despite encouragement from high profile politicians, like former President Barack Obama, as well as other celebrities to encourage people to go out and vote, recent elections resulting in the electoral college overriding popular vote have people losing faith in the

Hey jackson! I completely agree what you said in your discussion. The low voter turnout should not be worried about and that it is a good thing in general. The people should not vote if they are not interested or are not educated on the election. As you said, If you introduce and educate the people on politics this should help the low voter turnout in time.

From the 1830s to the 1840s, voter turnout increased by over from about 57% to about 80%, which is over 20% difference. Although it is important for as many people to vote as possible, the importance of voter turnout becomes less significant when knowing that the voters are less representative of the total population and voting can be manipulated. For example, during the voting process, there was the possibility of buying people’s vote. Now that white men without property and education could vote, their votes could also be bought. This would be a beneficial to them because they could get money they did not have in the first place in exchange for their vote, and it would be beneficial for the people buying their vote because it meant they now had one more vote in their favor.

There are a number of differences in the demographics between the ones that are and are not politically involved. Older people tend to vote more than the younger people by their concern toward the government, as well as the number of white Americans voting more than the other minority races would. The educated will vote more than the uneducated by having more knowledge of the election, along with families with higher income of over $65,000 having time to vote than the low income ones of $35,000 or under. The ones who shows party identification would want to get involved in politics, whereas independent individual would not care as much. People who grew up with specific ideology would want to have a say in politics, in contrast to those who did not.

For Hispanics, participation levels also increased, with the voter turnout rate rising 2.7 percentage points, from 47.2% in 2004 to 49.9% in 2008. Among Asians, voter participation rates increased from 44.6% in 2004 to 47.0% in 2008. Meanwhile, among white eligible voters, the voter turnout rate fell slightly, from 67.2% in 2004 to 66.1% in 2008. (as shown in figure 1) Minorities voter turnout was at an all-time high because Barack Obama names was on the ballot.

“In November of 2011, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 14, creating a new requirement for voters to show photo identification while voting in person. While pending review within the judicial system, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively ended all pending litigation. As a result, voters are now required to present an approved form of photo identification in order to vote in all Texas Elections.” (1) When a voter arrives at a polling location, the voter will be asked to present one of the seven acceptable forms of photo ID. Then, the voter will be put through a secondary precaution which is the official list of registered voters also know as the, “OLRV”.

Over the past decades Texas has had the lowest voter turnout. This is due to the fact that in previous years a lot of people we ineligible to vote because of discrimination in the southern states especially in Texas. In the nineteenth century many laws and regulations were placed on citizens that prohibited them the right to vote. These individuals consist of African American, Hispanics, and women. Many laws has been amended since then to allow people the right to vote therefore, voter turnout has been increasing, but is still ranked the lowest in Texas.

There is not just one reason as to why voter turnout is so low, it is actually the collection of a few reasons. For example, some people stated that they were simply out of town, which in the U.S. you are only allowed to vote in your state of residence. Other elderly voters claimed to be sick or had a disability that prevented them from going to the polls to cast their ballot. Another reason could be that people had registration issues of some sort that didn’t allow them to vote. Then there are voters that are discourage that their vote is useless when it comes to voting on any matter.

For the past century, voter turnout in American presidential elections has significantly declined, likely due to the fact that Americans do not believe their single votes are important. In light of more recent elections, political donations from corporations, identified or anonymous, have infringed upon traditional, American democracy. Although corporate donations to political campaigns have little effect on the public compared to the newly pivotal role of social media, these donations are founded upon a ruling that is classist, undemocratic, and corrupt, leading to unprincipled politics. This ruling is Citizens United, passed January 21, 2010.

In 2012 218,959,000 people were eligible to vote and only 126,144,000 actually voted this outcome shows people don 't have belief their vote counts due to previous acts of the Electoral College. These non-voters adopting the mindset that they don’t matter or don’t count in the bigger picture; 13.4% 218,959,000 of these people not voting simply did not care on voting. The number one reason for people not voting is them believing their vote does not count and the Electoral College chooses the president either way. The concept of how the Electoral College works is not widely talked about it is mostly seen as being complex and people saying their vote doesn’t count anyways. This influences many voters to not even put up with registering to vote or ever voting at all.

The serious lack of voter turnout contradicts this responsibility. There are individuals who speculate that it would be beneficial to make voting mandatory, with repercussions for those who do not vote. At the beginning of the course, I had believed that voting should be made mandatory. I thought that it would inspire people to vote, and would increase the numbers of turnout that way.

Another solution to the low voter turnout would be to allow citizens to cast their votes online. Although this is susceptible to fraud, they can limit the votes per person by only allowing one vote per IP address or by issuing each registered voter an account login. This method would allow people to cast their vote in a matter of minutes at their own time. The last suggestion that could increase voter turnout would be removing the registration process to vote. Younger voters are not familiar with the voting registration process or they think it is too complicated.

“ While compulsion of any kind is a restriction, so is the compulsion to drive only on the right side of the road.” ( “Is It Time To Consider Mandatory Voting Laws? Worsening Voting Statistics Make a Strong Case.” by John W. Dean.) One way voter turnout can increase is by compulsory (required) voting.

However, one of the key characteristics of a healthy democracy is a high voter-turnout. If people do not turn up on Election Day, it is likely that they do not see the point of holding elections or the conditions are not suitable for them to vote. People vote because they believe that their vote has the power to make changes in the country. Voter apathy often develops when voters do not see voting as a way of voicing their concerns. America therefore continues to tread on risky ground, if a way of increasing voter turnout is not found.