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)
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and Voting-age population (VAP). Historically, Texas always ranks the lowest or near the bottom nationally. In the 2016 March (Presidential) Republican and Democratic primaries there was only 73.75% of the state VAP registered. The turnout for both parties was extremely low too; Republican had 14.69% and Democratic had just 7.44% (Cascos). This data clearly proves that Texas continues to have a problem with eligible citizens registering and registered voters turning out to vote. Texas is a very traditionalistic and individualistic state.
“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…
too. There are many factors that people believe contribute to the United States having a low voter turnout compared to other countries.
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
rights. Historically, voting in Texas and the United States have been very low compared to other states in the U.S. and other countries as a nation. I believe that we need to put more emphasis on politics and the importance of voting in the Texas school curriculum. It should not be a one-day discussion in middle or high school. It needs to introduced early and built upon throughout all grades. I believe Texas must also reach out to the Latino and African American communities to increase voter turnout. The traditionalistic culture that is still present of wealthy white men running Texas needs to be changed and there must be a cultural shift in Texas. If not, Texas will continue to dominate the bottom of all voter turnout statistics.
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
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.
There is a way that is already put in use to increase voter turnout in Australia is to make voting mandatory. People in Australia are forced to vote or they will be fined, or even jailed if they do not vote repeatedly. It is very effective in term of improving voter turnout; however, there is still some argument against it. One of them being people would only vote because they have to, so they are ignorantly voting for the candidates just to be done with it. I completely agree with this idea. The voter turnout can be really high, but it would be meaningless if the people just vote to escape from the punishments. Yale Law School Professor Stephen Carter also suggested that, instead of punishing people do not vote, we should reward people who vote. It is the same with the mandatory voting. I think it will only be effective in increasing the voter turnout, but the results will not. People should vote voluntarily for the best and fair outcome. To have more people voting, I believe we should take a look at why people do not vote. We must assure people that if everybody thinks their vote does not count, then no one would vote. We should be able to change their attitude about their own votes. If people cannot vote because they are busy with work or schools, we should have a national day off on the election day. By doing so, much more people will be able to participate in voting. There should also be
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...
According to a study done by Nonprofit Vote only “an estimated 58.7% of eligible voters turned out to vote” ("Voter Turnout" ) in 2012’s presidential election, which is below the 62% that was achieved in 2008. (Ginsberg 306). According to the United States Census Bureau in 2012 71.2 percent of Americans reported that they were registered to vote, but only 61.8 reported that they actually did so. ("Voting and Registration"). While each source didn’t report the exact same statistics in America these percentages are considered highs in political participation. Even worse, in midterm elections voter turnout is normally closer to 33% and even lower for any local elections. (Ginsberg 306). While we may consider any of those statistics good for America, looking at world democracies we are trailing far behind, in many “European countries and other western democracies [the] national voter turnout is usually between 70 to 90 percent.”(Ginsberg 306). The question is then asked why don’t American’s vote, which is then an...
The people shake their heads and wave their fingers in disapproval towards the government from local levels to national levels--mimes of America. These mimes act out their opinion rather than using their voice to declare what they want. Pretending to perform action rather than completing action, these mimes dissimulate so they do not feel excluded. America is blessed with the opportunity to live in a country endowed with such great freedoms. In the United States, the basic freedoms for voting are often taken for granted and unutilized by many Americans, especially Texans. Despite the large size of Texas, the historic background of voting and other factors have caused the state to experience low voter turnout.
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.
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.
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.
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