In the past, voter turnout has peaked at about 60% of the United States population in the 2008 presidential election. The U.S. hasn't reached more than 65% voter turnout since 1912. The percentage of voter turnout in midterm elections is even lower at about 40 percent. Compared to many different nations across the world, voter turnout compared to the eligible population in presidential elections is stunning low. It is important to note that many democratic European countries are parliamentary systems with proportional voting, so drawing comparisons to those countries are difficult. However, as a constitutional right, voting turnout should not be as low as 50%, even at the national level. This literature review asks the question: why is voter
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In their article, Election Laws, Mobilization, and Turnout: The Unanticipated Consequences of Election Reform, professors at the University of Wisconsin, Madison theorize that election reforms laws have made registration even harder for the American public, further decreasing their turnout during elections. Election have become so complex that election reforms laws now has made it possible for the public to register to vote the on same day that they would vote, vote on the day of the Election, submit an absentee ballots, or vote by mail. The authors stipulate that all these complex ways to voting and registering to vote has taken away from the prestige of Election Day, especially at the national level. The public then perceives voting as an unpleasant task. By their calculation, Election Day registration raises the likelihood of voting by three or four percentage votes and early voting lowers the likelihood of voting by three or four percentage points. Their research also shows that early voting is destroying the prestige of Election Day and social interactions at the polls are diminished because of early voting (Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan 2014). Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan’s conclusion agrees with previous research about reform laws making it more difficult for voters to vote in elections. The article, published in 1978 states “the more time and energy required to vote, the …show more content…
Voter turnout out could be negatively affected by complex election reforms laws and negative advertisement and impersonal political contact. They almost completely discount the idea that another research theory could also be an effect for low . Highlighting the issues in the previous research is key for motivating additional research, but the ideas should be added, not disregarded. Most of the research doesn’t mention that there could be a combination of reasons for why the United State national voting turnout is so low. It would be difficult to show that in a short article like the one published in these journals, but this is a major
In their article, Election Laws, Mobilization, and Turnout: The Unanticipated Consequences of Election Reform, professors at the University of Wisconsin, Madison theorize that election reforms laws have made registration even harder for the American public, further decreasing their turnout during elections. Election have become so complex that election reforms laws now has made it possible for the public to register to vote the on same day that they would vote, vote on the day of the Election, submit an absentee ballots, or vote by mail. The authors stipulate that all these complex ways to voting and registering to vote has taken away from the prestige of Election Day, especially at the national level. The public then perceives voting as an unpleasant task. By their calculation, Election Day registration raises the likelihood of voting by three or four percentage votes and early voting lowers the likelihood of voting by three or four percentage points. Their research also shows that early voting is destroying the prestige of Election Day and social interactions at the polls are diminished because of early voting (Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan 2014). Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan’s conclusion agrees with previous research about reform laws making it more difficult for voters to vote in elections. The article, published in 1978 states “the more time and energy required to vote, the …show more content…
Voter turnout out could be negatively affected by complex election reforms laws and negative advertisement and impersonal political contact. They almost completely discount the idea that another research theory could also be an effect for low . Highlighting the issues in the previous research is key for motivating additional research, but the ideas should be added, not disregarded. Most of the research doesn’t mention that there could be a combination of reasons for why the United State national voting turnout is so low. It would be difficult to show that in a short article like the one published in these journals, but this is a major