Voter Apathy in the United States

We will show how these cardinal features have contri aloneed to the increase in negative political advertising, which in turn has increased the political cynicism and composure of all voters, but particularly of inexperienced or disengaged voters the youth. Lastly, we will describe the move that must be taken to re-engage the electorate and banish voter apathy to the annals of the past.

In the mid-fifties, political scholars believed that the American democracy was accounting entry into a golden period. Although tractor trailer in the fall in States suffered greatly during World War II, by the early 1950s turnout was at high historical levels. College-educated Americans were 50 percent more(prenominal) likely to vote than high-school graduates, and college attendance was rising dramatically. Additionally, the incidence of take among women was increasing and the voting gap that had existed between the genders since women were granted ballot in 1920 was steadily eroding. In that initial election in 1920, turnout among women was half that among men; by the early 1950s that gap had narrowed to 10 percentage points. Even more promising to political scholars were the signs of change in the South, where the Jim Crowe laws the poll taxes, the literacy tests, and the another(prenominal) diverse and sundry impediments to voting that had been instituted were being removed (Patterson1).

siding did not increase past the 1950s, however. The 1960 Presidential election was a high-water mark of sorts, with turnout r severallyi

The first gear change that could be undertaken is to force media networks, especially network television, to retrace their cuts in television coverage of campaigns. Not one of the 22 debates that were televised during the 2000 presidential primaries was broadcast in prime time by a major network, leading to less than 2 one million million million viewers watching the average debate. Even the coverage of caller conventions was severely curtailed. In 1976, for example, the networks averaged about 50 hours of convention coverage. In 2000, the network average for convention coverage was a incorrupt 9 hours. This trend is particularly troubling because "Conventions and debates draw citizens to the campaign.

They atomic number 18 also the points in the campaign where citizens acquire much of their selective information about the candidates and issues" (Patterson2). Broadcast networks should be required to televise debates and conventions. If net income are the problem, policy makers should remind network executives that they make hundreds of millions of dollars each year by operating on the public airwaves fire of charge.

Lastly, the get together States should implement same-day registration for its public. The main reason that the United States lags behind European democracies in turnout rates is the fact that registration in Europe is automatic. The governments abroad assume the business for placing all eligible citizens on the registration rolls. "In the United States, the responsibility rests with the individual. Americans no longer have to face the high-minded obstacles, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, which once kept many an(prenominal) of them from registering. Nevertheless, registration is still a significant barrier to voting." This is because 87 percent of Americans live in states that shut down their voter registration process two or more weeks ahead Election Day. Studies have shown, however, that over 80 percent of unregistered citizens in these states were not aware that there was a deadline for registr
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