Voter Apathy Causes And Effects - 879 Words

Voter Apathy: The Causes and Effects of Not Going to the Polls Few can doubt the corruptness and hypocrisy of American politics. Scandals hit the news daily. Senator A takes a bribe. Congressman B serves only lobbyists. President C cheats on his wife. Voters take note of these transgressions and of others within the political environment. They scratch their heads and wonder how things could possibly ever change. After all, all politicians, even those with the best of intentions, seem to debase themselves once in office. Therefore, voters wonder why they should participate in the process. They ask themselves how they could possible make a difference. Sadly, voters cite many reasons for not going to the polls, and these reasons keep true reform from occurring within the political process. Certainly, of the many causes of voter apathy, a sense of pointlessness keeps voters from the polls. Unfortunately, many apathetic voters sense that their vote does not count. Their sense of futility further increased over the last few presidential elections. Even with such a close vote count in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, many voters realize the insignificance of their vote. The feelings of many voters concerning the Electoral College provide a prime example of this perceived insignificance. The Electoral College process boils presidential elections down to individual state races. In most states, the candidate who wins the majority of the state’s votesShow MoreRelatedThe Low Voter Turn Out in the United States Essay examples1678 Words   |  7 Pagesthat voter turnout and participation in recent elections has been rapidly and steadily declining, causing the United States to have the lowest voter participation in the world (â€Å"Is the System Broken? †). In other countries, such as Italy, Belgium, Austria, and Australia, voter participation is over 90 percent, while in the United States, it has been as low as 49.1 percent (â€Å"Ghosh†). Voter apathy has become a serious and urgent issue in the United States, engendered mainly by the younger voter populationRead More Cause and Effect Essay - The Causes of America’s Social Problems1016 Words   |  5 PagesCause and Effect Essay - The Causes of America’s Social Problems The causes of social problems exist on many levels. When we ask why social problems such as poverty, unemployment, crime, and war exist, each time we determine a cause, we can ask why again, as children often do until they are hushed. Poverty exists because some folks cant find jobs or the jobs pay poorly. But then why is the wage level so low? Because of the tax and land-tenure systems. Why do we have those systems? BecauseRead MorePolitical Apathy And The Threat Of Democracy1315 Words   |  6 Pages What is political apathy and does it pose a threat to democracy? In 1950, voter turnout for the United Kingdom General Election peaked at a respectable 83.9% of the population. This number has dwindled steadily since then dropping to 72.7% in 1972 and in more contemporary times in the most recent UK General Election in 2015, this number drops to a worrying 66.1%. (House of Commons Research Papers, 2015) Does this statistic and blatant political apathy of 22.5 million people spark a threat to democracyRead MoreCauses of Low Electoral Participation in the United States Essay533 Words   |  3 PagesCauses of Low Electoral Participation in the United States In any Democracy, voter turnout is important as a measure of how truly democratic the election was, the more people that do vote, the more democratic the election. Yet America one of the largest democratic nations in the world still has a poor turnout. A survey conducted in 1983 concluded that America was twenty third out of twenty four nations in respect of its voter turnout, with only Switzerland havingRead MoreVoter Turnout And Voter Apathy1650 Words   |  7 PagesVoter turnout is commonly regarded as one of the most distinct issues within American politics of the last century. Though the United States once averaged a turnout rate of 78% of eligible voters in presidential elections between 1860 and 19001, the average voter turnout of the 21st century has fallen to around 52%2. The cause of the marked decline throughout the 20th century is often attributed simply to voter apathy, but the issue is much more complex. Upon analysis, it is clear that a numberRead MoreThe Importance Of Electoral Reform In Canada1401 Words   |  6 PagesQuebec (Que.) and BC have all explored some form of PR or another. Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) has been the predominant option proposed and most recently in the cases of P.E.I. and Ont. rejected by voters. B.C. considered adopting a Single Vote Transferable (STV) system and put the question to voters twice, most recently in 2 009 when it failed to receive even a majority of votes . During the 2016 Manitoba provincial election, Liberal candidate Rana Bokhari ran on a platform that included PR in additionRead MoreLegislation In Texas Essay1012 Words   |  5 PagesAppeals to Apathy: Legislation in Texas Running for public office in the state of Texas is not an easy task. The state is rife with gerrymandering, special interest groups, and a generally apathetic voting populace. To challenge an incumbent means to battle against all of that. The population of Texas that does vote is most likely to vote for the same person that they have been voting for. Special Interest groups will fund their campaigns, giving them a greater platform to reach voters than one wouldRead MoreChapter 8 Outline1899 Words   |  8 Pages8 Political Participation Objectives This chapter reviews the much-discussed low voter turnout and the poor percentage of other forms of political participation in the United States. After reading and reviewing the material in this chapter, the student should be able to do each of the following: 1. Explain why the text believes that the description, the analysis, and many of the proposed remedies for low voter-turnout rates in the United States are generally off base. 2. Compare the ways thatRead MoreThe Decline Of Electoral Participation Among Young Canadians2542 Words   |  11 PagesThe Decline of Electoral Participation Among Young Canadians Since a robust voter turnout is instrumental to the functioning of a healthy democracy, the ongoing decline of youth voter turnout in Canada is highly alarming. According to the Canadian Election Study, the reported voter turnout among Canadians aged 18 to 24 dropped from 83 percent in 1974 to 60 percent in 2000 (Barnes and Virgint, 2010). The aim of this paper is to explain this decline. While it is generally accepted that people’s propensityRead MoreGiven The Increasing Decline In Turnout For Elections,1477 Words   |  6 Pageshand, would mainly argue that making voting compulsory would be an infringement on the rights of the individual, and would contravene their right to be free to abstain should they wish to do so. They would also assert that compulsory voting would cause other problems, such as causing inconvenience, an increase in joke votes or ‘donkey votes’, and an added expensive of setting up an enforcement process and evaluation of whether someone h as valid reasons to abstain. The 2015 UK general election saw