Voter turnouts in American elections have been to say the least poor. To increase participation in elections groups have been started such as “Vote or die” but the turnout still remains low. Yet political parties are glad to have just about fifty percent of eligible voters come out to the polls.
The low voter turnout is not entirely the American citizen’s fault a good example of this is the voter id laws “Requiring voters to show a state or federal government-issued photo ID card at the polls” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). People who can’t drive because of a disability or people who can’t afford a car are hurt by this law. The proponents of this law are usually Republican and “Contend that the laws are needed to limit vote fraud” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). Voter fraud tends to happen very rarely and “Large number of poor, minority, and disabled people-groups that tend to support Democrats-might lose their chance to vote” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). Is it worth to avoid voting fraud to suppress people the right to vote simply because they don’t have a license? Is this hurting the democratic process that is supposed to have representatives elected by the people?
Another issue is the states who do not allow Election Day registration. The states that use EDR “Tend to have higher turnout rates, because citizens can cast a ballot even if they do not get interested enough to take part until the last, most engaging campaign” (Hershey, Marjorie. 144). It seems that by not having EDR is instantly going to cut down the amount of voters who would come to the polls. A recent example was the 2008 election “One expert estimated that about 9 Million eligible people, many of whom are less educated, lower income, or residentially mobile, tried but were unable to register” (Hershey, Marjorie. 144). 9 million is a pretty big number that amount of voters could have possibly swayed the 2008 election one way or another and increased voter turnout. Political parties and organizations like “Vote of die” are telling the American public to go to the polls when in some cases it is out of their power to do so.
American political parties were established to educate their citizens and keep the public informed, but the parties are only informing there registered party voters. The informed stayed informed while the people who aren’t informed are left in the dark. To increase voter turnout rate political parties might have to get after the states that enforce the voting laws in order to increase voting in the United States.
Works Cited
Hershey, Marjorie Randon. Party Politics in America. New York: Pearson Longman, 2011. Print.
32 comments:
Personally, I don't think that low voter turnout has to to with a lack of identification. I do think that there is a lack of knowledge among voters. Its easy to not follow politics in America because we are not at the point of life or death. Iraq had a higher turn out than the American population. Health care or no health care, Americans are too consumed by their everyday lives and jobs to pay attention. If it affects the American population in a loose all of your money fashion, sure we will pay attention. If you ask any student on campus who the VP is, I bet they would not know. They would however know who Sara Palin is, the next Bachelor, the winner of Survivor, or who was on Ellen Degenerous that morning. Americans do not care because they do not have to. If we put our presidential candidates on American Idol and had them sing, the best singer would win the election.
I believe that another reason why the voter turn-out is so low is because of how politics is conducted today. You have to dig incredibly deep into a candidates profile in order to even figure out where they stand on issues. Unless you're voting within your party exclusively, and vote simply for large issues, then you're virtually clueless on the candidates. The media is simply focused on how a candidate is dressed, how well they speak, what they did with their family last night, etc, etc, and couldn't care less about the issues.
On some levels, I have to agree with the episode of South Park that focuses on the importance of voting. The moral was, you're always either voting for a "huge douche" or a "turd sandwich," and honestly, now-a-days, I think that truly is all we get for party candidates. No one cares because most believe there's no one good enough to actually take the time and vote for.
I agree, I think voter turnout could be increased. I remember my sophomore year a few of my peers simply did not want to vote even though they were finally of age to vote for the President. When I inquired why they did not want to exercise their right to vote, I heard answers from "I don't care for either of the candidates, so why vote?" to "I'm too lazy to research their views." I was shocked. I feel that if people are more educated on the candidates opinions on topics without forcing them to "strenuous research" we might have a greater voter turnout. Perhaps make people want to research their candidates and put in the extra effort to vote for someone you agree with.
It seems that people do not care enough to be well informed of politics. That coupled with the continuous slander and dirty campaigning that takes place I think turns a lot of people off to politics. Basically, what seems to win right now is that candidates tell the people what they think they want to hear and no one seems to be able to come up with definitive answers. Part of that is the nature of politics but another big part is that American want problems to be fixed now and are unwilling to wait or allow for a proper analysis before decisions are made. And if there are no problems, they want little to no change because it may (they believe) negatively affect them. People only seem to vote if there is something wrong and even then they don’t turn out in any great number and very few even really know the issues.
I think that campaigning turns people off to voting. I vote whenever the opportunity allows me to, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I am annoyed with campaign workers. Before the last presidential election I couldn't walk to class without some lunatic in an Obama shirt step in front of me and ask who I was voting for. It's no ones business who I am voting for. The role of campaign workers is to inform voters about the candidates they support so that voters can identify with their platform, not harrass them into submission. Get the info out there and leave me alone
I am completely against the idea that voter turnout is dimished because of the need to produce a valid ID when you show up to vote. It takes 3 seconds away from the process and obtaining a non drivers license is inexpensive and a responsible thing to do if you are not a driver. The political parties should have the obligation of telling is what their candidate stands for and do away with this mud slinging that is the only thing that is visible. It is sad that voting isn't considered a personal responsiblility and we put the blame on other people because we didnt vote. If both candidates don't appeal to you write in a different person. If all the people who didn't like the two options given wrote in another person I think we would see a sway in the percentage of votes to these cookie cutter candidates. Personal responsibility should be embraced not considered a hassle.
The requirements states put on voting do indeed play a part in the low turnout, as do many other factors like dirty campaigning, but I personally think its more along the lines of what Nicole said. The candidates don't differ much because they're trying to play to middle of the road because America is afraid of actual change in any regard. Feed us our status quo and turn on the TV, let someone else worry about it.
Personally, I think the low voter turnout is mostly due to the fact that there are so many elections within the US. Having at least two candidates per election, there are numerous candidate profiles to look over before a person feels like he or she is making an informed decision to vote. Mixed with all of this are the behaviors of the candidates in which they never make their positions clear except for on the rarest of occasions. As a result, people would rather carry on with their daily lives with the knowledge that they will go to the polls when something worth while comes along.
Low voter turnout in the United States today, in my opinion, is not necessarily a bad thing. I would argue strongly that it is better to have a low number of interested and concerned voters turn out on Election day, than to have a large number of those who are not. The interested and concerned voter is definitely more likely to be paying attention to the current actions of government and would be better informed when making their decisions. If you push people too hard to vote when they really don't want to, nothing can be said regarding the logic that they use to cast their vote. Over time, as more social issues are being brought to the citizens' attention, it will spark the interest for those who care about those issues; thus partially resolving the problem of low turnout rates.
I think if people were more educated about the issues and they were more directly affected than they would be almost be forced to vote. People who do not pay attention do not know how they are affected by who or what they vote for so most times they dont even bother voting in the first place they just assume that someone will go an take care of issues for them, like healthcare, but if they do not go out and take care of stuff on their own who is to say that others are going to vote in favor of what they want.
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