With the last eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the percentage of eligible voters that actually vote in the U.S. General and Primary elections has been steadily declining at an unprecedented rate that hasn’t been seen in decades. Various socioeconomic factors come to affect these percentages like age, race and gender. The lack of political efficacy also has a noticeable effect in the electorate, caused by opposition towards the democratic and republican party but, there are many ways we can increase the public's interests in politics and voting. To begin, voting is the active participation of the peoples of a certain government in determining incumbency of certain offices such as: governor of a state, congressman or woman, a state representative or more iconically, in the United States, presidency. Voting in the United States began as a legal privilege for the white male landowners, and over time the definition of what defines an eligible voter in the U.S. has changed. …show more content…
The right to vote is now legally guaranteed to all male citizens regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude. By 1919-1920 the Nineteenth Amendment is adopted by Congress and ratified by the states into law. The right to vote is now guaranteed to all citizens regardless of gender and finally in 1971 the 26th Amendment sets the national voting age to 18 and over (History of voting
All adult women finally got the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, in 1920.
"Miller light and bud light…either way you end up with a mighty weak beer!" This is how Jim Hightower (a Texan populist speaker) described the choices that the U.S. electorate had in the 2000 elections. This insinuates that there is a clear lack of distinction between the parties. Along with numerous others, this is one of the reasons why the turnout is so low in the U.S. elections. In trying to explain the low figures at the U.S. elections, analysts have called American voters apathetic to indifferent to downright lazy. I disagree that the 50% (in recent elections) of voters that fail to turnout to vote are lazy and that they have just reason not too. I will also show that the problem lies within the system itself in that the institutional arrangements, electoral and governmental, do not create an environment that is conducive to mass participation. I will address these main issues and several others that have an effect on voter participation. In doing so I will compare America to other established democracies.
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.
On August 18, 1920, the nineteenth amendment was fully ratified. It is now legal for women to vote on Election Day in the United States. When Election Day came around in 1920, women across the nation filled the voting booths. They finally had a chance to vote for what they thought was best. Not only did they get the right to vote, but they also got many other social and economic rights.
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was sign into the Constitution, granting women the rights to vote.
The first people that were allowed to vote were white men who owned property. After that many ways to keep many different type of people from voting were formed. Once owning property wasn't necessary to vote, almost all white men had the right to vote. The 15th amendment passed in 1870 allowed all men to vote, no matter what race they were. Beyond those, the literacy test, poll tax, and grandfather clause were implemented to keep the unintelligent and unwealthy from voting. Women still did not have the right to vote, but thanks to Susan B Anthony and other women suffragist, the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. Poll taxes in federal elections were banned by the 24th amendment in 1964. The Voting Rights Act in 1965 eliminated the literacy test from voting. The 26th amendment in 1971 changed the minimum voting age from 21 to 18. Through many amendments to the Constitution and many people fighting for their right to vote, just about everyone who is an American citizen and is 18 years of age has the right to vote.
In order to completely understand how far society has come and the amount of work that still must be done, in regards to being able to exercise our voting rights, we must first understand some of the voting barriers that minorities have faced in the past. It was not until 1870 that the 15th amendment was passed, declaring it unconstitutional for an individual to be denied the right to vote based on their color, race or previous condition of servitude. However, the 15th amendment only applied to male individuals, it did not guarantee the right for women to vote. Instead, female voters had to wait an additional fifty years until they were granted the privilege to vote. In 1920, the 19th amendment was finally passed, stating that regardless of gender every American citizen had the right to vote.
Over the past few weeks the presidential race has dominated our nation. Not a day goes by where I do not find new posts on Facebook that involve the upcoming presidential election. Without fail, one of my friends on Facebook always publishes an article, opinion, or meme regarding Hilary or Trump, which, do not misconstrue my opinion, is amazing. An informed society supporting their representative and exercising their rights is exactly what our country needs. However, much to my alarm, I have discovered on Facebook and even The Odyssey, that plenty of people intend to boycott this election and not vote for anyone because they find both candidates inadequate. This decision to remain voiceless completely confounds me. Ultimately, how does refusing to vote solve anything?
Voting in the United States of America has a low percentage of eligable voters participating. Lowering the age is a great way to get more people invovled as well as promoting voting to the older population. lowering the age and making it easier to vote will increase the eligible voters pertcentage.
During the days leading up to the results of the 2016 election, many people, the general public and specialists alike, were not expecting Donald Trump to win. While the expectations versus realities of voter turnout were definitely the reason for such a different outcome than what was predicted, but it’s misleading to focus too much attention on one demographic when trying to explain the election results. When it comes to the 2016 election, the demographics of who most voted for Trump are equally, if not more important, than the ones of those who chose not to vote at all. Focusing on white working-class voters only covers half of story that was the 2016 presidential election, and the other half, including non-voters and the other majorities that voted Trump, is just as essential.
In contemporary society, people are less aware and inquisitive of the world they live in. Within our nation, people are oblivious to the hardships other nations face and the effects of those hardships on our nation. In response to this, some have argued that voting should be a privilege earned through serving the country for twenty-four months. Although voting is a privilege that should be earned, confining voting to only those who serve would infringe people’s unalienable voting right and would lead to an unfair disadvantage to a proportion of the population.
A man was sitting at home. It happened to be an Election Day. He sat watching TV as a public commercial came on. The woman on the commercial said, "Vote! Take the opportunity to use the gift our country gave us. The man said, "I don't need to vote. My man will win." Sadly his man did not win, they had to draw straws because it was a tie. If he had voted, his man would have won.
The Importance of Voting If you were to ask me a few years ago why voting was important, I wouldn't really have the proper grasp as to why you should. A few years ago, what was on television that night was important to me, American politics were only the video clips that my father watched on the news before I was able to take over with MTV and vegetate mindlessly. Politics was a very foreign concept to me; I always saw it as a very complicated issue. Perhaps due to the fact that whenever a child asks an adult, "What is the difference between a Democrat and a Communist?" They would give some round about response totally evading the actual answer, only so they could be politically correct and protect any actual real information entering their child's head, for example, they reply with, "
While voting seems like a simple task, it is way more than that. A lot goes into the task of checking a few boxes and submitting your vote. First of all, even getting the opportunity to vote requires work. Before even having the ballot in your hands, you need to make sure you are eligible and registered to vote. Pretty much any American citizen over the age of 18 can register to vote, except for some felons who are removed from the political process.
Living in America gives each individual freedom. The freedom is yours to express your own opinion and to vote. Whether or not we choose to exercise these rights is the decision that every American citizen makes. Participating in our government is the single most important power that we as Americans have. Whether it is to elect officials or to amend a law, voting is not only a necessity, but a responsibility. In the 1996 and the 1998 presidential election, the voting turnout was below 50%. It has not been below 50% since 1920.