The United States ranks 138th out of 172 nations (Pinor) in terms of voter turnouts nationally. The United States should be setting an example of how a democracy should be elected and governed. Fortunately, we are able to elect the best city, state, and country leaders despite the low percentage of our eligible voters and registered voters that vote. Texas, the second largest population in the United States, ranks in the bottom five of all states nationally for voting. Some researchers argue that Texas ranks among the worst of all states. Below we will discuss how voting is measured, reasons for low voting in Texas, and factors that influence voter turnout in the United States. Voting turnout is measured by Voting-eligible population (VEP) …show more content…
“Don’t mess with Texas” and “Everything is bigger in Texas” is the mindset they still have today and it reinforces these cultures. Therefore, being a very traditional state, Texas had many restrictions that limited voters- Poll Tax, Women could not vote, and only wealthy Anglos could vote. Although the restrictions have been changed by law today, it has contributed to a culture of people who do not want to vote since it was primarily only done by wealthy white men. Another factor that contributes to the low registering and voter turnout in Texas is the lack of education within the state and the teaching of politics in the school. Since there is a lack of education about state and national politics, students are left unaware of the importance of being politically involved in their city, state, and national governments. If their parents are not involved in politics, then young Americans are less likely to be involved in voting or registering to vote …show more content…
The most widely known reason or excuse for not voting is because voting is held on a Tuesday. Many Americans work and get caught up in the daily routine of work, school, family life, or simply forget at the end of the day. A lot of Americans argue that if voting was on the weekend they would vote. Personally, I feel this is a weak excuse and they could make time to vote. You cannot be penalized by an employer for taking time off to go vote. On the weekends, they could make excuses that they had family events, travel, chores, etc., and those reasons would keep them for going out to vote too. Another reason U.S. citizens are thought to not vote is because it is a two-step process to vote. You must register first and then vote later. In other countries you can register the day of and cast your vote immediately following. Another contributor to low voter turnout is because it is not a law to vote in the U.S. In Australia and Belgium, it is the law to vote and you can be fined for not voting. By implementing such a law in the U.S. would take away from what many people feel like is a vote; “not voting is a vote” and this would take away from their
To begin with, you should be a resident of the United States, no less than 18 years of age, and enlisted to vote. Additionally, you should be an resident of Texas for no less than thirty days Despite the objective desire that your vote won't turn a decision, you may, in the same way as other of us, vote at any rate, and for different reasons. A few people are glad for the effort they put into being educated and included. Others vote out of a feeling of obligation or because of their faith in the estimation of vote-based cooperation. Constituent crusades in Texas have turned out to be progressively costly over the course of recent decades.
An issue in Texas today is whether the public have sufficient control over the executive branch of Texas government. Texas has a plural executive, which mean the public not only elects the Lieutenant Governor, but also the Attorney General, Comptroller, Land Commissioner, and Agricultural Commissioner (Benson, Clinkscale, and Giardino 216). These elections add significantly to the “long ballet” that the public can vote for. Some argue that because there are so many to vote for, people cannot adequately vote for the positions. The research and attention needed to stay up to date on the elections can steer people away from voting. Many people vote for the governor and the lieutenant governor because of the title and how high the positions are.
Texas went through a great amount of political change from being dominated by the Democratic Party during the 1960s and 70s, from the Republican Party taking over in the 80s. One of the big reasons for this change was due to the political party’s views. Throughout this essay I will discuss the changes of the political stances in Texas as well as the present day factors that affect America.
Some registration laws in the past had clearly been designed to abstain certain races and types of people from registering, these restricted rather than assisted voter turnout. In the South they made provisions to stop African-Americans voting and the North implemented obstacles such as the poll tax and literacy tests. These were blatant attempts to stop people who were not of the typical voter, an educated white male landowner from casting a ballot. Typically in the South turnout historically tends to be lower than that of the North. An example of this is the contest between Kennedy and Nixon when only 40% of the south turned out to vote compared with 70% of the rest of the nation. These southern states tend to be the ones who were part of the old Confederacy. They still seem to have similar political ideologies, as in the most recent election George W. Bush took all these states in defeating Al Gore. It seems that the stigma connected to the civil war that ended over 130 years ago still seems to loom over American politics. However due to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, procedures for registration have become much more user friendly in allowing a much wider scope of American citizens to register. Because of this Act I am going to concentrate on the more recent elections and explanations for the low turnout.
In the youth of Texas, the Democratic Party enjoyed electoral dominance on all levels of state government and in the representation in the national government. Democratic rule was dominated by a conservative white political elite that strongly promoted economic development, but that resisted change either in race relations or social programs for the poor ("Texas Politics," 2009). Republicans were not completely absent during this period, but their electoral victories were few and limited in scope ("Texas Politics," 2009). In every election after 1980, however, the Republican strength grew into the now dominant rule that currently reigns in Texas. Since the 1990’s, the Republican Party, despite the attempts of others, has had a stronghold on the state government. With that being said, the Republican Party has dominated the overall elections.
The United States national elections have been experiencing a steady decline of eligible voters showing up to vote. This steady decline has been ongoing since experiencing a significant increase in voter turnout from 1948 through 1960. Over the years there has been significant, meticulous research done to try to pinpoint the cause of the decline in voter turnout over years. All of this research has led to the production of an enormous number of literatures written on the perceived causes. The vast amount of literature produced has led to a number of competing explanations about this decline. The quest for the answer to the question of, why this decline in voter turnout, is very important for an overwhelming majority of Americans and our democratic system because the people/voters can only truly be represented by our government if all eligible voters go out and vote. For this paper I will examine four theories that attempt to explain the decline. The four theories that I will discuss are voting barriers, campaign contributions, negative campaign advertising, and finally the cultural explanation. However, through thorough exploration and critiques of the strengths and weaknesses of these four theories, we will find that the cultural explanation theory is currently the most persuasive theory in the group. Finally, I will also explore some reasons as to why citizens do vote as well.
First, one reason why Americans should be required to vote is that it will educate the citizens. Evidence supporting this reason is in “Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma, American Political Science Review” Aaron Lijphart stated that “By compelling people to vote, we are likely to arouse in them an intelligent interest and to give them a political knowledge that do not at present possess.” This evidence helps explain why Americans should be required to vote because when citizens are required to vote it gives them a political understanding that they didn't have before voting. Most citizens will research
It’s very unsettling to know that there was a six percent decrease in young voters (ages 18-29) in the 2012 election compared to 2008 (Circle Youth data). In 2007 the National Conference of State Legislatures publicly released a report and data set on voter turnout in democratic countries. This is a quote from that report titled Getting out the Vote, “It should be noted that in 1972, 18-year-olds were added to the eligible voting population, thus decreasing the percentages. Nonetheless, voter tu...
Being an individualist state, government has many restricted power over its people and it is because of how government is structured and its past history. Texas likes to be known as independent and not relying on government as did in the past. In Texas it is believed that people should get help from private sectors instead of the government bureaucracy. (Giardino pg. 27). Businesses in Texas are booming and with that came more conservative republicans into office. An example is lowering taxes and that would benefit businesses but affect citizens by not offering government programs or local assistance. Another example would be the salary of Texas legislators. Legislators do not get paid much only about $7,200 per year which represents how Texas does not want them involved. (Giardino pg. 169) Even though Texas is known to be an individualistic state it also has bits of the other cultures mixed in. Traditionalist culture preserves the status quo. Texans have made many changes throughout time but it still reserves many ways. For example in our textbook, “Texas was one of the last states to introduce legalized gambling” (Giardino pg. 28) as well as trying to keep minorities out of voting by having poll taxes and white primaries which eventually were abolished. This are key patterns of the conservative ways of Texans. The moralistic culture is one that could be integrated among every state. It
When America was first established, they had the highest voting turnouts ever in American history. Ever since, America’s voting turn-out has dropped (Fortin). The reason for the high turn outs were because American colonists wanted change from the British’s electoral system. As history writes, American colonist rebel and over time becomes one of the greatest countries ever. Today, Americans are one of the worst countries in vote to registration as they rank 120 in the world (Pintor). Over the summer, I got to learn more about Ohio’s electoral system and voting turn outs in a first hand experience. A decreasing number of voting to registration is not only a national problem, but a local issue as well and there are creative ideas in fixing these
After carefully analyzing Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 in the Texas Politics Today textbook you can clearly analyze that the percentage of the voting age population in nonpresidential elections is significantly lower by at least ten percent than the percentage of the voting population in the general elections. Although voter turnout has been low it has been increasing little by little over the years which is a big benefit due to the fact more citizens have been taking in active role in the democracy of their society, even though the voter turnout is not where most people want it to be it is at least increasing. Another observation made from tables one and two is that although voter turnout has been increasing in the United States as a whole, voter turnout has been decreasing in Texas.
Poverty levels in Texas have had an everlasting influence on voter turnout. As mentioned in our textbook, in 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau ranked Texas with the sixth-highest poverty rate amongst all 50 states. Living in a state of poverty, entails a lower educated society. “The low overall state turnout rate is at least partly caused by the tendency of Black and Latino citizens to stay home on election day” (Newell 143). This low turnout has a rippling effect on politics because “when minorities do not vote, it hurts the Democrats” (Newell 144) and thus the state becomes controlled by one party. Yet, there are minor adjustments that can increase voter turnout in
America’s low voter turnout has been attributed to the political parties’ failure to enliven the potential voters with the awareness and competitiveness in elections and the overall difficulty of the registration and voting process. The research portion of this project was predominantly provided from four books focused on voter turnout, whether it was perceived to be increasing or decreasing. The article was found using one of the books and altogether the sources provided analytical and institutional perspectives on American voter turnout. I believe voter turnout, along with voter registration, is steadily declining in America due to multiple factors, though the topics touched on above are largely impacting us today.
Voting in the March Primary is half way finished, and according to a Dallas News article, the votes for Democrats, each day, are exceeding the votes for Republicans. When comparing the first week of early voting from 2014, Democratic voter turnout has exceeded to 69 percent; whereas for Republican voter turnout, theirs has only increased up 20 percent. This spike in Democratic voter turnout has not only shocked Republicans, but it has shocked many conservatives as well. According to an email that Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican politician and Governor of Texas, he requested Texans to make donations to help spread the message for conservatives and Republicans to vote. In his email, he states that the rise in Democratic voter turnout should
In 2012, only 58% of the population voted in the primary elections. That is a very low number compared to all the other countries. According to William A. Galston’s article, “Telling Americans to Vote, or Else,” he states, “Jury duty is mandatory; why not voting.” I agree with his statement. Pursuant to the online business dictionary, jury duty is “one of the highest duties of citizenship.” In jury duty, you are making a very important decision. You’re making the decision to prove if someone is innocent or guilty. The idea of jury duty correlates with the aspect of voting. You’re a part of the decision process to pick the next leader of our country. As well as jury duty, voting should be added to one of the highest duties of U.S