Voter turnout

Barack Obama spoke about mandatory voting in the March of 2015, he related, “If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country,” Voter participation is at an all-time low with only 36.4% of eligible voters casting ballots in the 2014 midterm elections. The problems that arise from low voter turnout are numerous, but the most influential impact from not voting is this – Politicians only care about individuals who vote, and if only certain groups are voting…

Figure 3 shows the voter turnout in the dataset years as the lines are representation of the countries Figure 4 shows an easier explanation of average of voter turnout for the countries in the dataset. This shows the overall to give the average turnout because figure 4 gives an understanding of this. The countries that have higher turnout are more of List PR and the lower ones are FPTP. An interesting outcome of this looking at the Scandinavian countries all have mostly higher turnout comparing…

a 36.7% of voter turnout this is a low amount compared to nations with compulsory voting (2016). In our two-party system the votes typically come from citizens who support either Republican or Democrat leaving third party candidates to suffer. “A rational voter will cast a vote only if the benefits therefrom exceed the corresponding costs, which is not often the case” (Tucak and Sabo, p.179, 2015). Cost can be observed as financial in the sense of time off work, time in that many voter have to…

easily accessible platform for regular people to share news, for the media moguls to cover events, and now also for politicians to address their constituents. With this we can further question if the frequency of social media has an effect on the voter turnout rate. Social media creates an outlet for an increase of constant exposure to news about current events and important information. These platforms connect…

A remarkable degree of concern has been expressed about level of voter turnout in democracies. Many behavioral level theories, more specifically rational choice theory is unsuccessful in explaining voter turnout. Indeed, “the instrument voter axiom predicts large-scale abstention because no individual is likely to have an influence on the election outcome” (Downs, 1957). However, international election results demonstrate that a large number of people do turn out to cast their vote, although…

forgotten voters, election campaigns enhance turnout and generate a voter population that is more representative of a polity . The primary focus of election campaign initiatives is to persuade those who are expected to vote to make decisions and participate in the voting process. Consequently, election campaigns serve the purpose of mobilization of the voter population by influencing their opinion and turnout during the…

Texas Voter Identification Law Over the recent years, the Texas legislature were speculating on a new policy which would require citizens to provide proof of identification by some form of issued photo identification. This was due to the excessive amount of fraudulent voting, and in 2011 this policy had come to pass under the Texas legislature. Throughout its review this law encountered many controversies on whether or not this policy would create any disruption in the voting system, the…

Voter Apathy: Plummeting Participation One consistent theme that underlies United States politics is voter apathy. Voter apathy is when large numbers of eligible Americans boycott their participation in public elections. According to official government data, from the years 1960 to 2008 the percent of eligible voters who casted their ballots ranged from 49% to 63%. This means as much as half of the American voters in the country do not care enough to decide which candidate should be the Chief…

Soon after the election, many of the large polling services that predicted the incorrect outcome were quick to point to the obvious increase in turnout from the rural sections of America, specifically the Rust Belt states Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Ohio. While there certainly was an ethnocentrically driven increase in white voter turnout throughout the working class regions of these key states, the more significant factor contributing to Hillary Clinton’s defeat was the lack…

The thought being presented is voter turnout could be at an all-time low in countries as a result of the electoral system. Turnout could increase again or turnout can keep declining where turnout comes to a certain point in countries’ election could no longer play a role to have political knowledge. Will take a look at voter turnout in 30 countries electoral system in legislative elections from mid-1940 to the current…