Is the United States “election happy?”

Since the United States not only elects the President through elections, but also elects governors, state legislators, judges and other state officials, the term “election happy” can be used to describe this policy. I find this term not only ironic in our current political state, but also wonder if the United States can truly be described as being “election happy” in the literal sense of the term.

With over 500,000 elections a year, it is impossible to avoid ballot fatigue- the exhaustion of voters interest and knowledge in elections caused by election frequency and the length and complexity of ballots. Granted, not everyone votes in all 500,000 elections but ballot fatigue is still a part of our system. This can be directly correlated to the United States having a low voter turnout than most developed countries around the world with only 55.7% of the voting population actually showing up to vote in the 2016 election.

This graph shows how the Unite States has never even gotten above 65% of the voting population to vote. A low voter turnout in our country can be explained by many varying factors.

People may experience barriers to voting, where they don’t have transportation to get to vote, or if they didn’t register to vote in advance they couldn’t cast their ballot. There are many other reasons why people choose not to cast their vote and it may be a personal choice but it is clear that the way this conducts its election causes people to not vote.

This leads me back to my original question as to if Americans are election happy in the literal sense of the term and I have to say we are not. Political parties aren’t concerned with the low voter turnout, all they care about is getting their supporters to the ballot to vote. There is an extreme disconnect here- political parties stand on the basis that they want to do good for their country and exercise their policies but the overall good of the country lies in the hand of the popular opinion.

In order to be election happy, I think our country should change the policy around how accessible it should be to vote. With modern day technology, there should be a way easier way to register and to vote even if you don’t have the means to. Everyone should get the opportunity to voice their opinion in the election. I truly believe if our country was election happy, this past 2016 election would have had a different outcome.

6 Responses to "Is the United States “election happy?”"

Gwynna Ryan says:

March 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm

Madeleine,

I think the question of voter turn out and specifically why the United States experiences such low voter turn out is a very relevant one in today’s political culture. I had never seriously considered that the amount of elections contributed to this problem. I think that this is an interesting explanation. As far as elections go, having to vote for positions like local judges when a person has no base of knowledge on whether or not current judges are successfully and adequately fulfilling their duties can be time consuming and even a deterrent to voting when all a person really cares about is voting for the president or for their Congressional representatives. I agree that the United States could and should make it much easier to cast ballots. The system of registering to vote prior to the election and then needing to go on site to cast a ballot is unnecessarily convoluted that rewards the wealthy and hurts the poor who maybe can’t get time off work or who don’t have access to high quality information.
Jacob Weis says:

March 27, 2018 at 9:36 pm

Madeleine,

Interesting post, you raised some good points. You are right, many people experience barriers when it comes to getting out and voting. I believe that a lot of people think that their vote doesn’t matter because it has little impact on the outcome. The problem with this mindset is that if everyone thought this way, we would have a much lower voter turnout than it already is. I would have to disagree with your point about implementing technology. The reason I disagree is because hacking can occur. The way it is set up not it is almost impossible to hinder the process, but I do believe there has to be a more efficient way to allow for more people to vote. The fact that the United States has never risen about 65% voter turnout is unacceptable.
Virginia Myers says:

March 27, 2018 at 11:47 pm

Dear Maddy,

Thank you for your post. I was immediately intrigued by your blog post when I read the title because I too thought of the irony of the phrase “election happy.” I agree with your point about America’s need to increase the accessibility of voting, decrease restrictions and decrease voting complexities. However, I disagree with your last line of your blog post when you say, “I truly believe if our country was election happy, this past 2016 election would have had a different outcome.” Unfortunately, although our country believes we live in a democratic society where the majority vote truly makes an impact on elections, the votes actually come down to the electoral college. Clinton got 2.9M more votes than Trump, yet she lost the election. Although I definitely agree we need to make adjustments to the way our country votes so that more people have access to relevant, important information and the ability to vote, I also think we need to consider making changes to the way the presidential election occurs. Despite all of the time and money presidential candidates spend campaigning for themselves, the majority isn’t actually who really matters at the end of the day. Of course their support is needed to ensure members of the electoral college understand where public opinion stands (and for many other reasons), but the votes in the electoral college matters above all. What does this say about our popular sovereignty? Political equality? As of now, we don’t have political equality because not everyone can vote (due to accessibility and complexity), so not everyone’s voice is heard AND the electoral college’s voice is more powerful that the majority’s voice in making a change.
Joanna Briand says:

March 28, 2018 at 3:48 pm

I would have to agree with your statement regarding the low voter turnout and the disconnect between public opinion and its eventual translation into public policy. I think a way to solve this is to implement different features that would increase voter turnout, and, consequently, increase the amount of opinions that are considered within policy implementation. These could be simple things like making Election Day a holiday, which would give employees a designated time to vote, thus increasing voter turnout. Similarly, there could be an online platform that people could sign up for time slots so that people would know when their designated voting time was that worked with their won schedule. This tactic would assuage many fears of waiting in long lines. Or, in accordance with what Maddy suggested regarding technology, maybe there could be an official voting booth app that could be created so that people could cast their votes there. And if people do not have access to technology that can run applications, then they could go to a polling place and vote there, just as they would have to do today. These implementations would take time, effort, and other resources in order to work. However, I certainly feel that the benefits outweigh the costs since they would certainly increase the ease of voting, and therefore, voter turnout. This could be the starting point of bridging together the gap that Maddy discussed in our political environment between public opinion and election outcomes.
Calum Johnson says:

March 28, 2018 at 11:36 pm

Madeleine,

I do find it interesting that our country has a low voter turnout, whether that be the accessibility to voting or the apathy of voting in general. However, I do not think that this issue of getting people to vote is very necessary. If we look back to our discussion of polling, a group can do a solid job at reflecting the entire population. It may be that people that vote properly represent the general feeling of the entire nation. Where this would go wrong would be if the people that voted misrepresented a certain part of the population. It is common to hear that it is difficult to get young people to vote. The best way to solve this lack of voter turnout is not necessarily increasing those who vote in general, but targeting the areas where people are misrepresented within the nation.
Sara Milano says:

April 1, 2018 at 5:32 pm

Madeleine,

I think you make a lot of good points about how frequently elections are conducted and the idea of “ballot fatigue.” However, I disagree that America is not election happy. We certainly have more elections when compared with other nations, but this is because (in an optimistic assumption) our government seeks to be more representative. I do not think having more elections would influence voter turnout, political opinion, or change the results of elections. As elections grow more frequent and smaller, participation shrinks. We know that disenfranchisement and voter suppression play a role in elections, but the smaller and smaller turnout we see from presidential to local elections can only be accounted for by apathy.

Elections are a great way to gauge political opinion, but they are imperfect and should not be the only way. Because we are so “election happy” less emphasis is put on other forms of participation such as protests, organizations, and social media that advance interests outside of when elections are held. This allows for political opinion to be voiced more frequently without the suppressing or costly effects of voting.

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