Low Voter Turnout Essay

The American government strives to meet the ideal of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” In order for the government to represent the voices of the people, every person needs to have a voice. But what about when the cost of voting is too high? Especially when people don’t see their vote as mattering? When voter turnout is extremely low, is the government still of the people, by the people, for the people? For many people information about candidates and free time are too hard to come by and voting has to take a back seat. When voter turnout during a pivotal presidential election cycle, 2012, is just over half of the voting age population (53.6%) and is only 30-40% on average in non-presidential election cycles, there is significant risk that not all types of opinions and people are being heard (Wayne 2014). How do we fix this? Simply put, voting should be easier. The essential problem is low voter turnout. When ranked against other countries around the world, the United States ranks 138th in terms of voter turnout (Koas 2012). Even in “democracies most like ours” voter turnout is often around 80-90% (Fisher 2008). Voter turnout is necessary in order to reinforce the power …show more content…
I believe that this is a valid point and begins to point out the real potential of a very secure method of voting. However, I think the issue can’t be taken too lightly: there would need to be multiple levels of secure login and tested and proven methods of online identification verification before the online component of this solution could be implemented. However, this is very likely to become more and more desirable as America heads towards increased internet usage so it’s time to prepare for this exciting possibility