The Act of Voting

How come voter turnout has declined in the last 50 years? Voter turnout has become a growing issue in the present day elections.  Our country has some of the most active citizens in every government election except the Presidential elections.  Why do people actively engage in everything but don't participate in the most important election in our country? The long term reasons for the decline are decrease in voter fraud, decline in party machines, and voter registration requirements.  Also, voting eligibility is a partial factor where resident aliens, felons, and mentally disabled are not allowed to vote but as a total number they account for a very large population. Voter registration is decided by the states and there are a number of ways people register depending on what state you live in.  Most states require you to register 30 days prior to election day and if you're late then you just missed out on your vote.  Others you can go and register the day of election day in order to encourage voter turnout.  College students, living away from where they are registered have to use absentee ballots in order to vote and since college students already have enough on their plates they generally end up not voting.  Three other reasons people refuse to vote is apathy, lack of political efficacy, and cost.  The chart below shows the recent decline in voter turnout from 1948 to 2008.  From looking at the chart I think certain rises can be linked to events taking place at the time and people feel like they should get involved in what is going on.  Overall, I think we can only get voter turnout up to a certain point and then it would stop because there will always be people that are uninterested in the election.  Despite recommendations to fix the system even if the process is ridiculously easy.  A huge event would be the only way voter turnout would get past the certain point I stated earlier and that only happens once every 50 years.

In my opinion, I believe we should have voting as simple as possible in order to get max voter turnout out of the American citizens.  From what I've noticed people don't vote because it takes so much time in order to vote and most Americans are too busy or just feel like they have no voice that actually matters in the election.  Resident aliens, felons and the mentally disabled count for a good chunk of the American population.  Resident aliens I believe should be eligible to vote because they are living within the borders and whoever is elected effects them no matter what you do. Also, it could give us a better estimate of how many aliens are living in the country and could help get a better idea on what to do for the Immigration Act Obama said he pass at the start of his presidency.  Felons and mentally disabled are still citizens despite felons losing their rights to live freely in the country.  The government is still affecting them and I believe they have a right to a vote because of that.  Anyone living within the borders of the United States should be allowed to vote because it affects them and could effect them directly and people should think about it from resident aliens, felons, and the mentally disabled's perspective.  My reasoning is because I try to look at every ones perspective and try to give the basic rights to people who don't have them even if it ends up upsetting people.  Voter registration is too complicated and time consuming since most of the time you have to register 30 days before an election and most people aren't thinking of voting at that time.  Instead of having the states determine how you register it should become national because I believe consistency across the nation would be easier to manage as a whole.  To keep it simple we could adopt the Motor Voter Act so people could show up and register the day of the election so the people who forgot to register 30 days prior don't miss out on their vote even though that would probably cause the time in takes to vote to increase greatly.  Either that or another idea I had is to have citizens register with their place of business, students could register with their school, and the unemployed could register the traditional way.  Businesses and schools could send in the peoples registrations making it more convenient and easier for people. These are just my recommendations.


http://andrewgelman.com/2008/11/voter-turnout-in-presidential-elections-1948-2008/
http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm