Voter Turnout in the United States

As was discussed in the documentary we watched in class, voter turnout has been pretty low in the past presidential elections, almost 60% of all voters. So why is this? One main reason is voter apathy. Voter apathy is basically the idea that one's vote doesn't count and therefore doesn't matter. For example, a lot of younger Americans have low voter turnout because they believe that their vote, which is one in millions, will not be enough to change the result of the election. With this we can see that voter turnout is dependent on voter age. As seen in the graph, the largest groups of voters are older than 45 years old while the younger generations seem to be falling behind.


Race also seems to have an effect on voter turnout as well. While the 15th amendment may have increased voting rights to all citizens in the US, it may have also lowered voter turnout by proportion. While it increases the voter pool, disenfranchisement of African American voters, particularly in the South, likely lowered voting rates. Discrimination towards minority voting groups can even be seen today with black americans being barred from voting along with other minorities as well as seen by turnout rates in the graph below.

Another factor is that voting takes up time. Compared to other countries, US citizens must register to vote, whereas other countries who automatically register their citizens to vote. In a 2012 Pew Research Center Study of 50 million US citizens, it found that 1/4 did not register to vote.
The last major reason I'll mention is education. Those that have more education are more likely to be informed and invested in politics which leads to their higher voting rates compared to their less educated counterparts.