Participation in Elections

Participation in elections and voter turnout has been declining since the early nineteen
hundreds, or so the statistics tell us. However, these are based from poll data that some also say
might not be accurate. These stats show that people, registered to vote, end up not voting at all.
This adds to the decreased stats based on voter turnout. There was also a high amount of voter
fraud in the early 19th century, which could have also been the reason for reaching nearly 80
percent voter turnout. The Australian ballot was set forth to reduce voter fraud. This cut back on
fraud, but did not eliminate it.
There was a decline in turnout around 1970, but I believe that it also depends on the era we
live in and how our economy stands. Sometimes, the public simply makes the choice not to
participate. One reason could be personal neglect or being anti-political perhaps. This year we
have seen a huge increase in both voter registrations and turnouts. I think that this is because
more people are interested in trying to make some kind of change, the increased amount of
population allowed to vote today can also add to the statistics. Political views and opinions have
increased drastically in younger people as well, driving younger students to cast their vote. In
addition, making it easy for college students to register and vote on campus has been an
influence on increasing turnout. There is still a high amount of older educated individuals who
participate and greatly help the way politics work. But we should not have to rely on them in
order to make our system work. Educating students in schools at a young age is a good idea so
we see younger people more involved with politics when they are of age to vote.

The way voter turnouts are calculated is by collecting data from two areas, voting age, and
voting eligibility. These both leave open doors to what could cause inaccurate calculations. Not
all registered young voters will end up going down to vote on Election Day, they perhaps could
be out of town or have too much going on. Eligibility stats will change; people who move out of
the area could be the cause for many missed votes on Election Day. The one report of a man
driving 12 hours back home just to cast his vote is one example. If all states allowed registered
voters to cast their vote the day of registration, before the Election Day, maybe we would see
more involvement and a larger turnout increase. This could cut back on polling costs and help
produce the end results more accurate and earlier. If we followed The Canadian system of
universal enrollment we could also see how this could change voter turnout. Making every
American citizen eligible and adding them to the statistics. Italy will mark on your ID papers that
you did not vote, perhaps if we adopted something like this it would help influence people to
vote.
Democrats seem to think that a higher turnout will help them in elections whereby the
Republicans believe it would not help. I think they should come to a compromise and work
together to produce a better working election system based on the needs of the people, not the
influence and views of their political parties. The people end up voting for and electing many
members to various different offices. We do have a large influence on who gets appointed to
represent us, which makes me wonder why people are not more involved. I still strongly believe
that if we want to see more results and higher turnouts within our political system, we need to
start educating our earlier K-12 students about community relations, law enforcement and
politics. There has been far too much negative influence cast by anti-official and antigovernment parents who raise their children the same way.

Jon Marshall - 2009