Explain the low turnout in U.S. elections. :: essays research papers fc

Explain the low turnout in U.S. elections.     "milling machine light and bud lighteither way you end up with a mighty weak beer" This is how Jim Hightower (a Texan populist speaker) described the choices that the U.S. electorate had in the 2000 elections. This insinuates that there is a clear lack of distinction between the parties. on with numerous others, this is one of the reasons why the turnout is so low in the U.S. elections. In trying to explain the low figures at the U.S. elections, analysts submit called American voters apathetic to indifferent to downright lazy. I disagree that the 50% (in new-made elections) of voters that fail to turnout to vote are lazy and that they have near reason non too. I will also show that the chore lies within the system itself in that the institutional arrangements, electoral and governmental, do not create an environment that is conducive to mass participation. I will predict these main issues and several o thers that have an effect on voter participation. In doing so I will compare America to other complete democracies.Some registration laws in the past had clearly been designed to terminate certain races and types of race from registering, these restricted rather than assisted voter turnout. In the South they made provisions to stop African-Americans voting and the North employ obstacles such as the poll tax and literacy tests. These were blatant attempts to stop people who were not of the typical voter, an educated white male landowner from cast a ballot. Typically in the South turnout historically tilts to be lower than that of the North. An example of this is the contest between Kennedy and Nixon when only 40% of the in the south turned out to vote compared with 70% of the rest of the nation. These southern states tend to be the ones who were part of the old Confederacy. They still seem to have sympathetic political ideologies, as in the most recent election George W. ren der took all these states in defeating Al Gore. It seems that the stigma connected to the civil contend that ended over 130 years ago still seems to tower over American politics. However due to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, procedures for registration have become much more user friendly in allowing a much wider scope of American citizens to register. Because of this Act I am sledding to concentrate on the more recent elections and explanations for the low turnout.