Despite last year’s elections being one of the highest stake elections in recent memories, voter turnout was the worst it had been in decades. The percentage of adult age voters who cast ballots was 55%, the lowest since 1996. What’s driving this lack of voter turnout? Voter apathy, barriers to voter registration, and a feeling that none of the options on the ballot truly represent the beliefs or values of the voters. Despite all of this, there are a number of valid reasons to get out to the polls, and a number of ways we can motivate and enable voters to turnout.
The best way to increase voter turnout in the country would be to remove some of the barriers that are currently preventing people from voting. Many people cite a lack of time as their reason not to vote. This could be remedied by making Election Day a national holiday. In addition, more states could start accepting mail-in ballots and providing early voting opportunities. This way, if someone happens to be busy on Election Day itself they would still be able to vote.
An inability to get to the polls isn’t the only thing stopping people from voting however. Many have the time to vote, but are so jaded by the current political system that they don’t feel as if their vote really matters. In presidential elections in particular some feel as if their vote doesn’t matter due to the volume of votes. A potential way to get around this would be to emphasize the importance of local and state level elections. Although some policy decisions made on a national scales have a direct effect on citizens, for the most part the decisions that will affect ones day-to-day life the most are made on the state or local level. This smaller scale allows for more meaningful political involvement as any vote carries a heavier weight than it would at a national level.
The political system itself may also need to be changed to ensure that a greater variety of candidates can be nominated to significant positions. Presently, only two real political parties of significance exist. Because of this many people don’t feel like there is somebody on the ballot that truly represents their best interests. This feeling contributed to the campaigns of outsiders such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders along with a general distrust of establishment politics and government.
There is also a certain segment of the opposition that simply meets anything to do politics related with apathy. The unfortunate reality is that lots of people consider politics and any news related to it boring and/or depressing. Many people are caught up in day-to-day life and don’t have the time or energy to get themselves involved in something they don’t have a passion for. This is a difficult issue to remedy, but a solution may lie in how we educate young people about politics. In my experience, most political science or American government classes I’ve taken have been very dry, painstakingly factual lessons on the various structures of government. This isn’t the way to make people passionate about politics. While it is important to understand the various structures of government and how they work, dumping all of this information into the brains of teenagers will bore them at best and give them a strong dislike of politics at worst. Political science classes at the high school level should focus on the various issues and policies that are dealt with in politics and government. These classes should show how these issues and policies could have direct impacts on students. These classes need to show that politics can have a real impact on the average person, and that they can play an active role in deciding what that impact is.