Voter Turnout essays

Voter Turnout essays American voter turnout in the past most recent presidential election, in my opinion, was embarrassing. The less than fifty percent of adults that turned out made Americans look like they just do not care. There are many factors that contribute to voter turnout. One of these is the registration requirements. This is the practice of placing citizens names on an official list of voters before they are eligible to exercise their right to vote. It started out as a way to keep people from casting more than one vote. This was a good idea until people started forgetting to register, or didnt get around to it before election day. After this, voter turnout started to decline. Some of the reasons people dont register are because they dont know when or where to do it. Poor and less educated citizens are the most likely to not turn out. Even if they do know where and when to go, a great deal of them do not have transportation or time to get there. Not all states go about making this kn owledge very publicly known in some areas. Sometimes citizens also have to have legal residency by living in the same place for a certain amount of time in order to be eligible to vote. Many states are not very concerned with increasing voter turnout. The frequency of elections also contributes to voter turnout. It decreases the amount of participation by requiring more effort by voters. Most people skip the primary elections and decide to vote just once. The fact that election days are usually on Tuesday also creates a problem with the working adult. Another reason for low voter turnout is due to the fact that Americans dont really see a difference between the major political parties. No party wants to alienate an entire group of people, so they wont really take a firm stand on a policy. Many Americans also feel apathetic or alienated towards voting. This means they either have feelings of personal non-interest...