Many aspects of politics have changed over the years but probably one of the most commonly changing factors is that of voting turnouts. Particularly, people that fall into the younger age category tend to vote in declining numbers between elections. According to studies done by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, the decline in voter turnout among people between the ages of 18-25 has been by “almost fifteen percentage points.” There are many influences that could account for the almost one third percent decline in youth voting, including what causes young people to turn out at lower rates to begin with and the challenges that college students face in terms of voting. It is important to consider college students when pondering the lower turnout rates because they account for a large …show more content…
College students can have the feeling that they don’t belong to any one place when they travel between college and home. This makes voting more difficult for them. Also in some states “if a student turns 18…and goes away to college, [they] are disenfranchised from voting unless [they] show up at home to vote” (Eisner). College students who live in states with this rule must return home, in person, to vote if they are a first time voter. This could be a reason why some college students don’t vote. It may not be easy for them to return home just to cast their vote. Another burden to college students in regards to voting is obtaining an absentee ballot. It is a long process of applying for one, receiving it, and then sending it back. Eisner explains that “college students today live in an electronic cyberworld; they don’t use envelopes and stamps.” It may be difficult for some students to travel and get envelopes and stamps just to request a ballot. It can also be a difficult task to obtain a ballot from a state that would allow a student to vote from
Research has brought about an abundance of reasons why youth are becoming less engaged in the political process. Education, absence of political knowledge, the media and family influence, indifference to election campaigns, inadequate amount of change, and lack of motivation are all possible factors in influencing the youth voter turnout.
This argument is not only sound but also it is valid. It is sound because both premises are true. One must be 18 to be eligible to vote. Some students in college are not 18 yet, so the conclusion that some college students are not able to vote is valid.
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.
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
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...
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
1. How can we explain the low voting turnout, and low participation in general, in Texas? Consider how political culture, socio-economics, race/ethnicity, age, institutional laws etc. may affect these low rates.
Someone may not want to vote because they might not know was going on in government and do not want to take part in something they are not familiar with. Another reason why a youth voter would not want to vote is that they do not care enough about voting to vote.
According to the Huffington Post, North Carolina’s college students fall a victim. to voter suppression tactics. Parties implemented ID laws which did not recognize college. IDs as a valid form of identification, nor can out of state students vote without a valid. North Carolina ID.
The United States presidential election of 2012 was the 57th presidential election. The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The Democratic political leader was the incumbent President Barack Obama, and his candidate was vice President Joe Biden. Throughout this election the proportion of eligible voters who cast ballots shows that the rate was lower than in the past two presidential elections. Voter turnout decreased from 62.3 percent of eligible citizens voting in 2008 to an estimated 57.5 in 2012. The above calculation was also below the 60.4 percent in 2004 election, however above the 54.2 percent turnout in the 2000 election. Despite a rise of over eight million voters within the fitted population, turnout dropped from 131 million voters in 2008 to an estimated 126 million voters in 2012. When all ballots were computed, some 93 million eligible voters didn’t vote. There must be some contributing factors to see why there's a decline in voters’ turnout.
As described by our textbook, voter turnout is “the proportion of the eligible citizens who actually cast ballots” (Newell 142). Measurement of voter turnout can occur in two ways— the percentage of registered voters voting or the percentage of the voting-age population voting. Voting-age population is the preferred measure because it eliminates variations in state voting requirements and elections that can influence voter turnout (Odessa College). The results of voter turnout can be daunting for U.S. officials when in comparison to other countries.
Voter turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history through the potential voters’ personal choice not to vote and ineligibility. According to research a large percentage of individuals are not voting because political parties fail to appeal to the voters and this leads to the voting population losing interest in the campaign, while others postpone registering and by the time they realize their delay the election is upon them.
In this paper, the reasons why young people do not vote will be explored and solutions as to how to get them to vote will be proposed. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), there are five main reasons why young people don’t vote. The graph presented uses census survey data from 2010 for citizens 18-24. The graph was broken down into two groups, those who are and are not in college. The first reason cited was being away from home or out of town, 23% of college students stated this and only 5% of people not in college stated this.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of growth and rebirth in New York during the 1920s, when the careers of writers such as Helene Johnson were changed for the better. Johnson in ‘Bottled’ and ‘Fiat Lux’ uses a range of ideas throughout her writing to sway readers’ emotions. In ‘Bottled’, the use of symbolism and the idea of imprisonment shown through the bottled sand leaves readers with a sense of curiosity and confusion. During the last stanza of ‘Bottled’, these feelings are changed through the use of the idea of false identity shown through the dancing man, turning more towards feelings of admiration and regret, also connecting back to the history of slavery and the idea of the ‘new Negro’. In ‘Fiat Lux’ (which means ‘let there be light’),
Our constitution is corrupt to the core, rigged to keep the out of touch, the pompous, and the self-serving minority in power, simultaneously shafting over the hard working majority of this great country. We are ruled by parasites, those fortunate enough to be born with enough money to be packed off to the 400 acres of land seemingly responsible for churning out our next leaders and ministers, preparing them to feast on the blood of 60 million people, the lives of which are completely alien when compared to their parasitical life of splendour. The same raucous, destructive, and self-entitled Bullingdon Club members, who carelessly took pleasure in wrecking restaurants, now have the chance to wreck the holy grail of our nation’s politics, the