Voter turnout Introduction/Thesis paragraph In order to determine how voter turnout is measured, one must know the definition. So what is voter

Voter turnout

Introduction/Thesis paragraph

In order to determine how voter turnout is measured, one must know the definition. So what is voter turnout? Wikipedia defines voter turnout as the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election (voter turnout). Two methods are utilized to calculate the percentage in both presidential and off year elections. The first one is Voting Age Population, which encompasses all individuals that have reached the minimum age to vote to include individuals that are not registered, illegal immigrants, and convicted felons. Celine refers to VAP as an accepted way of estimating the potential voters in the United States (Difference between VEP and VAP). The second one is Voting Eligible Population (VEP), which is the same as Voting Age Population minus all the individuals that are not registered, illegal immigrants, and felons. For obvious reasons, normally eligible voters but who are located overseas are not included in the VEP (Difference between VEP and VAP). Both VAP and VEP are utilized to illustrate and rank voting participation worldwide, though what factors influence this percentage?

Voter turnout in the United States (U.S.) in comparison to other countries is very poor. Election participation in the U.S. is left to the voter to decide. Its voting system is totally voluntary and has no repercussions when one does not exercise their rights to register or vote. For other countries, there is no registration requirement and they are registered automatically. The Pew Research Center completed a survey of the top 34 developed countries and the U.S. ranked 31st in voter turnout (follow my vote). Countries that don’t follow the voluntary voting system enforce compulsory voting. What is compulsory voting? According to Wikipedia, compulsory voting is a system in which voters are obliged to vote in elections or attend a polling place on voting day (Compulsory voting). Argentina requires citizens ages 18 through 70 to register and vote, Australia’s attendance is mandatory and citizens will be fines $26 for not voting, Bolivia will deny their citizens withdrawal of salary for three months, and other countries with similar rules. Countries that have followed compulsory voting have achieved high turnout percentages; however, countries that have rescinded or don’t use compulsory voting, such as the U.S., have experienced low turnouts. In 1845 Congress established the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as a nationwide date for federal election (Black). With Tuesday as the nationwide date in the U.S., some citizens are placed in a predicament on having to choose. Some citizens cannot afford to take time off due to financial constraints and are required utilize their leave so their absence with be paid. Minnesota, by the way, which has the model law on most of these issues, guarantees every citizen time off from their jobs to vote without penalties or reductions in their pay, personal leave or vacation time (Black). However, other countries have set weekends as their voting day, have multiple voting days, or are afforded time off without penalties to maximize voting participation. These factors have tremendously affected the level of turnout in the U.S. and with that in other countries, but how does Texas place itself amongst other states?

Voter turnout in Texas is considerably below the national percentage. In the 2008 presidential balloting, Texas voter turnout was about 8 percentage points below the turnout level in the country as a whole, and in the 2010 congressional contest, it was about 10 points below (Newell et al. 142). Texas is considered a rather poor state with an unevenly distributed wealth. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that it had the sixth-highest rate of poverty among all the states (Newell et al. 143). The poor and less educated minorities, African Americans and Latinos, have a tendency of staying home during Election Day. The combined minority demographic population is estimated to be 44 percent of the total Texas ethnical group. When the minorities don’t vote and stay home, it affects Texas overall turnout rate and places the state nearly last in the nation. One

Two historical factors that have affected voter participation in Texas have been the suffrage and the system of registration. The writers of the U.S. constitution in 1787 delegated the state the power to determine voter eligibility in both national and state elections (Newell et al. 139). At first, the state restricted the suffrage to Adult White male property owners only. As a result of those restrictions, only 5 percent of the 3,939,214 persons counted in the first national census in t1970 were eligible to vote (Newell et al. 139). In 1965, the Voting Rights Act gave African Americans the rights to vote, women were enfranchised by the 19th amendment, and the minimum age of 18 was lowered by the 26th amendment. However, Texas applied anti-registration schemes to get in the way of post-Civil War amendments and Voting Rights Act. There was a $1.50 poll tax registration fee emplaced in the early 20th century. This may not sound much today but back then it was indeed a major strain on a poor person’s income. This scheme was served to keep many poor people from the voting polls as the rich wanted no share in the voting power. The second anti-registration scheme Texas implemented was the October1-January 31 annual registration. By the time poor people became interested in an upcoming election, they had often missed their chance to register (Newell et al. 141). Once again, this was another way to keep the African Americans, Mexican Americans and poor whites from voting.

Conclusion paragraph

Celine. “Difference Between VEP and VAP.” Difference Between, 13 Jan. 2012, www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/politics/difference-between-vep-and-vap/. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017.

“Compulsory voting.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2017, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting/. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017.

Black, Eric, et al. “Why is turnout so low in U.S. elections? We make it more difficult to vote than other democracies.” MinnPost, www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2014/10/why-turnout-so-low-us-elections-we-make-it-more-difficult-vote-other-democrac. Accessed 16 Jan. 2017.

“How Does America's Voter Turnout Compare To The Rest Of The World?” Follow My Vote, 19 Apr. 2016, followmyvote.com/comparing-americas-voter-turnout/. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017

Newell, Charldean, et al. Texas Politics. 12th ed., Mason, OH, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013.

“Voter turnout.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Jan. 2017, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout/. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017.