POLI 310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: George W. Bush, Voting Age, Higher Education
15 Jun 2018
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POLI310
November 6th, 2017
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We have covered the foundation of US politics and covered 2 branches: Judiciary and Executive
branches.
Basic political practices
Political participation
The first thing when talking about political participation is talking about the paradox of participation
asially says it is irratioal to ote, eause oe ote ill ot ake a differee, ee if you do’t hae
much things to do, you surely have better things to do than going to the voting booth and vote. Voting is
pretty low. The other part of the paradox, then if everyone followed that, 1 vote would determine
everything and believe it or not, 1 vote can make a difference. Sometimes a few votes can make a big
difference. Also some people, get some pleasure out of participating in the democratic, civic duty. That
is the paradox of participation.
Even though in a sense it is irrational to vote, you should vote.
As with many things, when looking at the voting turnout have to look at so many different things,
registrations, eligibility, groups that are eligible have changed over the years, if you compare over a long
period of time eligibility has changed.
1920, women have the right to vote.
1965 the voting ats rights essetially alloed states that ould’t allo Afria-Americans to vote,
allowed them to vote with this act.
1971, lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
Those are big changes, here are some rough of historical figure for voting turnout:
- Oldest data: 1828, voting turnout 57.3% among the groups eligible to vote.
- Broadly increased around 19th century.
- Late 1800s and early 1900s, turnouts start to go down, it then increases again from 1920 to
1960.
- 1960 first presidential election that is broadly televised, JFK v. Nixon. Since 1960 and in 1960,
63% voted among the eligible groups.
- 1992, Bill Clinton, only 55% eligible voted. 74 million of americans did not vote. Of the people
who voted for Clinton only 24% who voted , voted for Clinton.
- 2000, 50.3% of eligible voters voted. In 2004 GWB reelected higher turnout
- 2008, Barack Obama, relatively high turnout at least 58.3. 2012, 54.9% turnout
- 2016 Trump, 58.1% turnout
- A lot of the folks do not bother to vote.
- Turnout rate in primary elections turnout rates depend. Broadly speaking its about 18%
turnout.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Quick Comparison
- Compared to most places, US turnout is low.
- Madatory otig i Australia, a’t really e i the opariso eause of the adatory
voting
- Canada 68.3% voting turnout
- So broadly speaking, you can step back from the historical comparison, the U.S is highly low.
- Some people are bothered by that, because whats the point of having democracy if no one
votes.
How can turnout be increased:
- To allow voters to register on the day off, the argument is that it might increase turnout.
- Another solution that has been flowed, is having election day on a holiday. Making it easier for
working people to vote
- Allow people to vote over several weeks, it would enhance turnout.
- Back in 2001, found that those approaches do not increase turnout but decrease turnout.
1993 there was the national voter act, where congress acts as a national voter, in order to increase
turout ee if that’s a state usiess. The idea was that whenever citizens acts with government that
the opportunity to get the people to vote right there. It was not fully implemented. Some republican
governors did not do at every election. Many more voters registered between 1993-1995 in the US
history, but actually turnout did not right to go along with the numbers of registered.
Another is crime, many states prohibit that people in prison from voting, some states say, you no longer
a ote. Millios of people ore ould ote if those las ere’t estalished.
What groups of people tend to vote?
- Education is the biggest one, educated people tend to vote, they are more reliable voters, why
eause they ted to ko ore aout politis ad are ore aare of hat’s goig o. The
turnout rate with BA is higher, generally 80%. Tend to participate. Much higher rate whose
people highest education degree is a high school diploma, 56%. Education level correlates with
turnouts.
- Age, older people ote, youger people do’t. eertheless, youg people still do ot ote at a
very high rate. 65 and older, 79% of them were registered and voted. 18-24, 47% voted. So age
is hugely is correlated with turnout rate.
- Income, most affluent people vote. People who earn more money tend to vote. Also income can
inflate with previous category, education. Income very much correlates with votes
- Race, this has changed. It used to be that white would vote. In 2004, turnout rate for citizens,
________. 2012, African Americans voters turnout was higher, because of Obama. The non-
white proportion of US population, is increasing.
- Gender, sex, it took about 60 years for women to vote as much as others. There has been a
phenomenon. It describes how nowadays women, are more reliable on voting, and how women
are ore deorati o otig tha e ho are repulia. Let’s get a democratic woman to
go against a republic guy. 2004 turnout 64% for women. In 2012 the gender gap was 20%. In
2016, 24% gap. Women vote more reliably and tend to vote more democratically.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
We have covered the foundation of us politics and covered 2 branches: judiciary and executive branches. The other part of the paradox, then if everyone followed that, 1 vote would determine everything and believe it or not, 1 vote can make a difference. Sometimes a few votes can make a big difference. Also some people, get some pleasure out of participating in the democratic, civic duty. Even though in a sense it is irrational to vote, you should vote. 1965 the voting a(cid:272)ts rights esse(cid:374)tially allo(cid:449)ed states that (cid:449)ould(cid:374)"t allo(cid:449) afri(cid:272)a(cid:374)-americans to vote, allowed them to vote with this act. 1971, lower the voting age from 21 to 18. Those are big changes, here are some rough of historical figure for voting turnout: Oldest data: 1828, voting turnout 57. 3% among the groups eligible to vote. Late 1800s and early 1900s, turnouts start to go down, it then increases again from 1920 to.
