Why Do So Few People Vote in the U.S.?

**min0 lee** · 11-05-2006, 08:12 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government of the people, by the people, will be missing a lot of people Election Day.
It's a persistent riddle in a country that thinks of itself as the beacon of democracy. Why do so few vote?
Compare U.S. voting with foreign voting and it's not a pretty sight. Americans are less apt to vote than are people in other old democracies, in new ones, in dangerous places, dirt poor ones, freezing cold ones, stinking hot ones and highly dysfunctional ones.
Even that theocratic "axis of evil," Iran, has bragging rights over the United States in this regard. So does chaotic Iraq, where an estimated 70 percent of voters cast ballots in December parliamentary elections.

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The pitched battle for control of the House and Senate in Tuesday's election has raised hope that voting will rise above its usual anemic levels. But competitive races are not reliable predictors of turnout and doubts exist about whether Republicans will be as fired up as Democrats and whether independents will vote with their feet or their seat.
As in other aspects of American life, the people who run elections work to make things easier for everyone. Yet they achieve little more than blips in increased turnout, if that.
Participation, paradoxically, is highest in states where making it to a polling station can be misery on a wintry day. Minnesota, Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming are among states that lead the nation in getting voters out, and they put the Sunbelt to shame.
About 40 percent of U.S. citizens of voting age population cast ballots in nonpresidential year elections.

Despite the competitive nature of the 2000 presidential race and the certainty of having a new chief executive no matter who won, just more than half turned out. In 2004, a polarized year when everyone remembered the near dead heat four years earlier, turnout climbed over 60 percent - edging a little closer to the likes of Iran, Iceland and Somalia.
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On the Net:
U.S. Election Assistance Commission: http://www.eac.gov/
Center for the Study of the American Electorate: http://spa.american.edu/ccps/pages.php?ID23
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance study of global turnout: http://www.idea.int/vt/survey/index.cfm

**Little Wing** · 11-05-2006, 08:43 AM

politics are so corrupt a lot of people see it at evil vs evil. some scumbag is going to win and some scumbag is going to lose

**Little Wing** · 11-05-2006, 08:49 AM

ok who should win the vote here?

the guy on the right cuz he is the lesser of two weevils

but he is still a weevil.

**Prince** · 11-05-2006, 08:56 AM

voting = waste of time.

**KelJu** · 11-05-2006, 09:43 AM

Voting allows us to parade around waving flags and pretending to be free. But, I still vote. I vote because I believe you should have no right to bitch about anything going on in our country unless you take part in the elections.

**min0 lee** · 11-05-2006, 09:49 AM

A voting block can be powerful.

**Prince** · 11-05-2006, 10:30 AM

voting is the governments way of making us "the people" feel like we/they actually have a say in how the country is run, we don't.

**P-funk** · 11-05-2006, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Robert DiMaggio

voting is the governments way of making us "the people" feel like we/they actually have a say in how the country is run, we don't.

true story.

**DOMS** · 11-05-2006, 11:06 AM

I vote just to piss off the Democrats.

Although...in the next election, which ever party is for getting rid of the illegals gets my vote.

**Prince** · 11-05-2006, 11:10 AM

**Bad Dog** · 11-05-2006, 11:56 AM

I've already voted three times in the coming election so I don't know why they don't vote.

**I Are Baboon** · 11-05-2006, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by Robert DiMaggio

voting is the governments way of making us "the people" feel like we/they actually have a say in how the country is run, we don't.

Why do you hate America?

**Prince** · 11-05-2006, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by I Are Baboon

Why do you hate America?

I love America, I hate what our government has turned into, total corruption.

**min0 lee** · 11-05-2006, 01:25 PM

I disagree with my current managers at work, but I do love my company. Unfortunately it is being run to the ground and there is nothing I can do but voice my opinions.

I love this Country but the people in charge are going to screw it all up.

There is nothing wrong with voicing what we don't like.

**min0 lee** · 11-05-2006, 01:26 PM

This government is a big business, but then again most good governments are I guess.

**Trouble** · 11-05-2006, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by Robert DiMaggio

voting is the governments way of making us "the people" feel like we/they actually have a say in how the country is run, we don't.

There is no democracy, no real freedom. There is the Machine and the Machine-created pseudo-reality of supposed parity and fairness, of opportunity, of choice. There are the players that push the buttons, throw the control levers of the Machine. There are those who believe that all that stands between us and doom is the Machine. They are the puppets that the Machine feeds and nurtures.

And then there the watchers who quietly observe the daily circus of life of the Machine and its programming, and the Borg-like followers who firmly adhere to the dictates and bright future promised by the Machine.

The Machine has successfully cloned itself into global domination. The process is called "globalization'. Now the Machine is feeding new legions of believers the sacred laws of consumption and consumerism, so that its dominion has spread from the third most-populous country to that of the first- and second-most heavily populated nations. Its inculcated the masses who reside in the top 100 nations. The Machine is now taking over natural resource reserves in all parts of the planet: materials necessary to drive the inner workings of the Machine.

As life on earth becomes more expensive, care and feeding of the Machine will consume a large portion of many economies. This follows a long understood economic rule called "economies of scale". As the demand for goods rise and the cost for manufacture of that good also rises, the residual costs for the production of the nth unit will also rise, and thus the cost/benefit ratio will be very high.

Resistance is futile.

**Prince** · 11-05-2006, 02:39 PM

Star Trek

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