The Decrease in Voter Turnout

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.

To examine this decline in voter turnout we must consider several factors. One of those factors is that there is no political efficacy. Political efficacy means that people are less likely to vote if they don't believe that their vote will be counted, or if they don't trust the government. Little faith in the electoral process leads to a conviction that a person's vote doesn't really matter. Citizens show lack of interest in politics because they have limited information about the government. The percentage of Americans who say they have “trust and confidence” in the presidency and Congress has decreased in the past decades. Americans’ Trust in government was 70% in 1960s, and then decreased to 40% in 1980s. A recent survey from Pew Research Center showed that “Only 2...

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... who are eligible of voting should get out there and vote. We fought to expand suffrage, and now we must show the government we are capable of voting.

Works Cited

Sullivan, Sean. "The States with the Highest and Lowest Turnout in 2012, in 2 Charts." Www.washingtonpost.com. N.p., 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.

Political Unit, CNN. "Video: Low Voter Turnout Explained." CNN Political Ticker RSS. N.p., 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.

"Election Protection • You Have the Right to Vote." Election Protection. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. .

"Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later | FEMA.gov." Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later | FEMA.gov. N.p., 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. .

"FairVote.org | Voter Turnout." FairVote. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. .