About half of the people vote in American presidential elections, and even less in off year elections. Many believe it is do to voter apathy, and demand the government and other groups to get out the vote.

 1. It is a misleading description of the problem  2. It is an incorrect explanation of the problem  3. It proposes a solution that will not work.

 1. How best to describe the problem  Data on voter turnout in America is misleading because they compute participation rates by two different measures.  In America only 2/3 of the voting age population is registered to vote  Voting age population VS registered voters.  2. A better explanation for the problem  It is not apathy on election day that is those that are registered vote.  The real source of the problem is that a relatively low percentage of the population is not registered to vote.

 3. How to cure the problem  A get out the vote drive will not make a difference instead a plan that would get more people to register could work.  Does this overcome the apathy of unregistered voters.  1. some people do not register because they do not care about politics or their duty as a citizen.  2. In the U.S. the burden of registering to vote is on the individual.  They must learn how and when and where to register  They must take time and effort to go and fill out the paper work.  When they move they have to do it all over again.

 In 1993 Congress passed the motor voter law to make it easier to register.  It requires states to allow people to register when applying for a driver’s licenses and provide registration through the mail and at some state offices that serve the disabled or provide public assistance.  The law took effect in 1995 and within two months 630,000 new voters registered in 27 states, but the results of the law have been mixed.  There is little evidence that the motor voter law has had much of an impact on either voter turnout or election outcomes.

 Debate about declining percentages of eligible adults who vote (two theories)  1. real decline caused by lessening popular interest and decreasing party mobilization.  2. Apparent decline, caused in part by the more honest ballot counts of today.  Parties once printed the ballots  Ballots were cast in public  Parties controlled counting  Rules regarding voter eligibility were easily circumvented.

 Most scholars see some real decline why?  1. registration is more difficult  Longer residency requirements  Educational qualifications ;discrimination  Registration has to occur far in advance of the election.  2. Is voter turnout really down (NO)  Voting age population  Voting eligible population

 Voting is the most common form while giving money to a candidate and being a member of a political organization are the least common.  Americans almost always exaggerate how often they vote or how active they are in politics.  Studies show that 8 to 10 percent of Americans misreport their voting habits  Young, low income, less educated, and nonwhite are more likely to misreport  Research shows that politics is not at the heart of the day to day life of Americans  Studies show that a larger amount of Americans take part in nonpolitical activities

 A study analyzing the ways in which people participate in politics.  1. Inactive (22 percent) they rarely vote and do not get involved in organizations, almost never talk politics. They are typically young, low income, African Americans.  2. Activists (11 percent) they participate in all forms of politics. Highly educated, high income, middle-aged

 3. Voting Specialists they vote but do little else. They tend to not have much schooling or income, and tend to be older.  4. Campaigners they vote but they also like to get involved in campaign activities, they are more educated than the average voter, they are interested in the conflicts, passions, and struggle of politics. They identify with a political party, willing to take strong positions

 5. Communalists like the campaigners in social background but they do not like the conflict and tension of partisan campaigns they instead use their energy for community activities of a nonpartisan nature (form or join groups to deal with local issues and contact local officials)  6. Parochial participants They do not vote and stay out of campaigns but are willing to contact local officials.

 1. Those with more education, high level of political information.  2. Religious involvement  Leads to social connectedness, teaches the skills associated with participation.  Awareness of issues  3. Men and women vote at the same rate but blacks and whites do not Why?  Social class  Income  Education  Among people of the same socioeconomic status blacks tend to vote more than whites.

 Because the population has become younger, and because the population of minorities is growing this could explain lower voter turn out why?  The number of people graduating from college what should this mean?  Why than is voter turn out low  Distrust of government  Data shows that there is no connection between distrust of political leaders and voting.  Registration requirements  Federal law 30 days before election  By mail  Same day as election (4 states) Maine Oregon Minnesota

 1. Younger population together with a growing number of minorities  2. political parties today are no longer as effective as they once were in getting people to vote  3. impediments to registration have influence.  If every state had the same requirements as the most permissive states turn out would increase.  Universal enrollment.

 4. Since not voting is costless there will be more nonvoting.  Voting compulsory (Italy government papers)  Fines for not voting (Australia)  5. voting will decline if people feel that the election does not matter  There are a number of reasons why we register and vote less often than people of other nations. Two studies of all the factors found that almost all of the differences in turnout among the 24 democratic nations could be explained by  Party strength  Automatic registration  Compulsory voting laws

 Americans vote less than people from other nations but we participate more in other ways  Campaigning, contacting government officials  Demonstrations  We vote less but we vote for more public officials than do other nations.  Study estimated that we have 521,000 elected offices in the United States.  U.S. turnout rates are skewed to higher status people  Our elections do not reflect our population  Professional, managerial, white-collar  Minority population is growing faster than white  Nonpolitical institutions  language