Sunday, November 17, 2019
Voter Turnout
This past week, we watched a documentary and learned about why voter turnout percentages in the U.S are so low. In 2016, only 61.4% of the population reported voting. This is a huge issue because the individuals who are elected into office affect everybody in the U.S, not just the 61.4% of the country that voted. According to the documentary, the biggest reason that seems to be keeping people from the polls is the idea that their vote doesn't matter. In some cases, it is definitely true that an individual's vote will matter less than in other parts of the country. For example, in a state that is pretty much majority Democratic or Republican, like California or Texas, an individual's vote may matter less. However, there are still a lot of states where the outcome could be different if people came out to vote. These swing states, like Pennsylvania and Virginia, account for a large percentage of the electoral college votes and could change the outcome of the election. It's important that people know their votes matter because as people stop voting, the government becomes less and less representative of what the people want.
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I agree with the fact that an individuals vote may matter less like in California Or Texas states because of the majority being democratic or republican. I think one of the reasons why there is a low voter turnout rate is because of the election being on a Tuesday. I wrote an article about this and have found out that voter turnouts have increased by states being more lenient with the election day and submitting their votes.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm correct, I think that 61.4% turnout is actually on the higher side of turnout. I'm not saying that's necessarily good, just that it's relatively good. I find your analysis important, although I would emphasize the idea that just because your vote statistically matters less doesn't mean you should just throw it away. Despite statistical weakness, a vote in conjunction with other similar voters as a bloc does wield power. I think that getting tunnel vision of this idea that your individual vote is insignificant is problematic. To do so is to not see the forest for the trees.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up an interesting point about how the voter turnout can be positively impacted when people feel they have a proportionally larger impact on the overall vote, like in swing states where each vote could determine which way the state goes. I found an article that talks about the different factors(based on state) that can determine voter turnout (https://www.npr.org/2016/11/26/503170280/charts-is-the-electoral-college-dragging-down-voter-turnout-in-your-state). Unsurprisingly, most swing states tended to have voter turnouts higher than the national average. The three states with the highest turnout were all "battleground states." The article also shows that convenience matters as well. Of the states with same-day voter registration, all but one were above the national average for turnout. I think this shows that a large contributor to people's choice to vote or not vote is whether their motivation – by the potential to swing your state or by the convenience of voting – overpowers their feelings of being inconsequential. Like Alex said, even if you think your vote doesn't matter, you should still vote because you never know what impact it might have.
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