Voting Participation and If We Really Want It

During this chapter, we talked multiple times about the amount of voting participation in different levels of elections. We talked about how at all levels, there was a very small number of people that actually voted and we spoke about it as if it was a bad thing. In my personal opinion, I do think that this is a bad thing and that everyone should vote as it is a part of our civic duty to do so. With that being said, I think there is a scary outcome that could possibly come of this. In previous chapters, we have also talked about the extreme amount of people that are politically unaware of whats going on in our country. We were even told that a small percentage of people could not even tell us who our president was if they were asked. This lack of attention to something that is supposed to be a vital part of our lives is scary to think about. With this being known, how much of those people do we want to participate inner elections? In the 2016 election, 58% of people voted which leaves about 40% of the country that did not vote. If we even got half of that 40% to vote, that would have a huge impact on the election. Do we want this impact though? As a country we want more participation in voting and elections, but if people are so uninformed with what is going on, this could cause even more disarray. It could cause us to elect people that are not fit for their respective positions which could have major backlash (even though that is what we seemed to do in this years election).

With that being said, there is not many things we can do to change this problem. People have to first want to be informed about these things and what is going on with our government, and some people just do not have the time or the resources to keep themselves up to date. There will continue to be this group of uninformed/misinformed people that do not participate in elections and maybe that is for the better. I think though that every citizen should try to use the retrospective voting model talked about in class. As professor McGowen said in class, it takes the “least amount of brain power to do”. This small model of checking off things you like or dislike bout a candidate is the easiest way to get a general idea of what a candidate stands for and whether you support them or not. If everyone were to try and take on this retrospective approach, I think as a country we could cut down on the amount of the misinformed and have educated participation.

Seyoum Settepani says:

November 2, 2017 at 2:10 pm

I agree with a lot of what you are saying about the importance of voting. However if the population is urged to vote I believe that everyone should take up that responsibility. I think that the 40% of people that do not vote are important because they make up our county. there are many reasons that go into voting and with eduction and poverty being main facts. the lower spectrum of the 40% that is not voting is becoming marginalized because their public opinion is being muted by voting laws that been going on since the time of jim crow where african americans are bing disenfranchised. The retrospective voting model could be a solution for this because it simplifies the vision of how and what you vote.

Hannah Dunn says:

November 4, 2017 at 8:51 pm

I read your post with Virginia’s upcoming election this Tuesday in mind. I agree that voter turnout is a huge issue, especially in off-year elections like ours. I think the retrospective voting model could work in two ways on Tuesday. Either there will be high democratic turnout because people are displeased with the presidential leadership, or republicans will come out heavily in response to democratic leadership in Virginia for the past several cycles. Perhaps these two factors will both play into voter turnout — either way, it is difficult to predict the result of the election because we don’t know which voters will be more inspired to make their way to the polls on Tuesday. Many polls show either a tie or Northam pulling slightly ahead, but because of the margin of error, the race is much too close to call. I believe that Virginia’s next governor will have won in large part because of voters’ retrospective style of decision making.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2017/governor/va/virginia_governor_gillespie_vs_northam-6197.html

Alyssa Holt says:

November 5, 2017 at 1:13 pm

While I do agree that the low participation rate can result in the marginalization of certain groups due to low representation in the government, I also think your point about the backlash from urging uniformed citizens to vote is very important. Considering minorities are more heavily represented in this group of uniformed citizens, I think a better step then pushing participation from everyone would be to find a way to inform and spark interest in these groups and encourage them to show their opinions. While this is hard considering the disinterest and feelings of neglect these groups may feel as a result of low government representation, a possible option could be creating groups within each demographic responsible for educating and mobilizing citizens on political issues. This would allow the groups to be more powerful through numbers, leading to more visible results and more interest in politics as their votes and opinions seem to truly be considered.