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There is not just one issue that is leading to younger generations not voting, it’s a combination of multiple aspects. It seems that some households don’t talk freely or at all about the candidates running for election, this only inhibits the children (and parents) from talking about the election.
There may be too many barriers for people to overcome such as registering to vote, can’t spend time in a booth, or not simply having the information on where/when to vote. The most common aspect to people not voting (especially the younger generations) is that they are not interested in politics, they may also feel that voting doesn’t make a difference. Another common thinking pattern is that “their vote doesn’t matter” or that they think that the system is corrupted, so why vote? However, there are many solutions to these problems.
This source benefits my paper due to the possible causes and solutions that can occur to encourage young people as well as people who think a different way on voting. This source also offers statistics that take place on voting day, as well as numbers (approximately) of people who don’t vote, people who weren’t interested enough to vote, or people who didn’t have enough information. As well as these statistics, there is a section below that offers “What To Do About It” that everyone can accomplish.
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In 1972, 18 to 20 year-olds were actually allowed to vote, and made up 55% of the age range of 18-29 year olds. In 2016, the same age group is down to 43%, so what happened? The turnout in the same age range tends to be around 20-30% points lower among the older generations. Some common reasons on why students/young people don’t vote is that the civics class they took in high school didn’t prepare them adequately for the real world of voting.
In the class they learned how many seats and senators there are in the house, instead of learning how to actually vote (or learning how to register to vote). Another common aspect was that the teachers tended to shy away from talking about politics to not offend anyone in the class. However, it can be talked about in an informative approach that won’t offend anyone.
This article examines factors, statistics, and student surveys from the young generation. As well as ways the school system can improve to adequately prepare students for the real world of voting. This source also offers direct quotes from students on such an issue, so this allows my paper to have different perspectives.
History of Voting in America
This source houses the history of voting within our country. The first date it documents is 1776, when voting was controlled by individual state legislatures, as well as only white men 21 years of age and up could be allowed to vote.
Further on in the document (1870) the 15th Amendment was passed that says states cannot discriminate at the polls. In 1920, the 19th amendment was passed that allowed women nationwide vote. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act granted Native Americans citizenship as well as the right to vote. This document goes up until 2009 with important events in voting history.
I tend to use important dates as well as information in my paper by getting the point across that it’s never too late to change history. I also tend to use dates as well as the hard work that was put into voting. As well as illuminating key points and key events that led up for us to be able to vote.
This article describes what a swing state is, and which states are indeed swing states. There is a descriptive process on the steps that has to be taken to get a certain number of electoral votes. In Michigan (one of the swing states) has to accomplish 16 electoral votes by the electoral college. When a candidate gets electoral votes, then the candidate has “won” that state and/or swing state.
With this information, I believe that it will better develop my paper by adding background information. In addition, by how the votes are tallied and scored by state. It may also be understood what a swing state is, as well as why it’s very important that a candidate “wins” a swing state, and how a swing state is determined.
This article subdivides 2018 electoral votes by gender, race, and education. Men (51%), women (40%) voted for republican candidate, when subdivided between race, whites (54%), blacks (9%), Hispanic (29%), Asian (23%) voted for republican candidate. It’s also interesting to see the educational divide, college women (39%), non-college women (56%), college men (51%), non-college men (66%) voted for republican. This article continues to divide younger generations as well as college students vs non-college bound youth who voted for which candidate.
With this research, I tend to analyse the data as possible contributors to the percentage gap. I also tend to look at the trend with youth voters and look at college versus non-college students. I believe this source will allow another perspective, as well as more statistics as far as how people tend to vote in as groups, race, and education.
This article breaks down reasons why social media could be good/bad in terms of voting for presidential or midterm. Some good reasons is that it’s free advertising for candidates. However, it’s also bad because it’s free advertising for candidates, this could often put the wrong or incorrect information out there for people to see.
A very common other reason is controversy, this allows politicians to send out information that is unfiltered and could be embarrassing, and create a wrong impression on the candidate. Also, if there is a post on who someone thinks should win, there is always people who are going to send hate messages, and could end up being a peer pressure in the voting booth.
I tend to take this information and use it as a cautionary tool. Many people are not aware of the “why” they do things. A lot of this is subconscious. I will also encourage people to break free of the social hold people may have on them. We are our own person, that can disagree on some topics. As long as we’re voting, we should be able to talk about such topics as educated Americans.
The electoral college is composed of 538 electors that represent each state. In order for a candidate to be president, they much have 270 out of 538 electoral votes across the nation. However, if a candidate doesn’t have that, then the final choice is made up of the U.S House of Representatives. This country was founded on the principle of “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Voting ensures full fundamental qualities of the people of America.
By incorporating this source, it gives some knowledge on how the votes are distributed and how they are actually calculated. By putting this source in my paper it turns down the counterargument that this process has no method to the final calculations. This also is given the point that everyone’s vote matters.“In 2014, 44 million eligible voters of color did not vote, and 66 million eligible voters earning less then $50,000 did not vote”.
This article breaks down (in greater detail) subdivisions of people who support free colleges/minimum wage and their breakdown of gender, education, race, and income. Later on in this document, there is more historical evidence of international voter turnout, as well as state-level. This continues to analyze factors that could lead to people voting or not voting on election day.
By incorporating this source, it allows more statistics as well as another point of view. It also offers national voter turnouts. This source will allow more historical reasonioning on all the hard work that was invested into this country. Later on, it also talks about how the younger generation houses the future of this country in their hands. This will offer another reason/solution to encourage people to vote therefore bettering our country.
“Youth voting has decreased a record breaking score of 52% from 2008 election.” But why? It is believed that the youth want something that will directly affect them almost simultaneously.
The youth also have said they feel “disillusioned” by both of the candidates, and therefore may sit out on the election. It is also thought that the younger generation may vote for a candidate that best fits their current needs such as loan forgiveness, or free college, but the price that they don’t think about is how it’s going to affect our county long term.
I tend on using this article to see this point of view from another perspective, as well as challenge the uprising voting generation to look past themselves and seek out the better advancement of the country. My general goal for this article as well as paper, is to encourage people young and old that their vote does matter!
This article offers many easy-to-do tips and tricks that anyone of any age/background can accomplish. Such as educate people as early/well as possible, healthy dose of peer pressure, healthy competition, adding some personal touches to the mix. Adding some power words to encourage others to start doing research on people running.
Right before Michigan’s 2006 Republican primary, there was a study done in a group of 180,000 voters, 20,000 different letters supporting people to vote, and another 20,000 got a “civic duty” letters. The last 99,000 were the control group of the experiment and didn’t receive any mailings. Scientists saw a “1.8% increase in the turnout of voters. Then eventually saw a 4.9% increase from the people among the viewing records. Then eventually rose to 8.1% increase. “
This example above is just an example of the power we can have (doesn’t have to be an experiment) on each other. I tend to take the research from this experiment and use it as an example as how we can encourage and challenge the people around us to vote.
