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Political Participation And Voting In The United States

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Political participation is any activity that is related to or involves government influence. Political involvement may be lobbying, protesting, contributing money to a candidate, or working for the government. Voting is the most common way citizens take part in our democracy today. It is often said that people do not participate in politics because they can’t, don’t want to, or nobody asked them to. People with greater socioeconomic eminence have the tendency to become more involved in politics than those with a lower socioeconomic status. The amount of civil participation in politics is determined by socioeconomic factors such as the level of education a person contains, the age range, family income, and minority status. Well-educated people …show more content…

Young voters are not as much likely to vote in elections and become involved in politics than older voters. Voter turnout in young voters are so low because young people feel like they do not have much at stake in society when it comes to voting or politics overall. Voting-age population is a measure of percentage of the number of people at the age of 18 and over who are possible voters. The problem with the voting-age population is that at the age of 18 teenagers would be considered as adults, so a large portion of young voters are not old enough to contribute in politics due to the fact that they are not old enough. Since Texas passed its voter ID law in 2011, it has made it harder teenagers to register to vote because the law makes it stricter on the voting-age population. Oppositely, older people are more likely to take part in politics because they have more at stake such as medical benefits, social security benefits, and so on. In addition to that, older voters have experience in voting whereas young voters would forget to register their new address when they move to a new place or register to vote. Young voters are more likely to care less about what is going on in politics, they simply do not care how Medicare affect them or social security benefits, and they are also less likely to fight for certain issues such as abortion or equal

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Wadiya Fanous Mr. Landrith APUSH 5th 7 November 2017 DBQ- Political Participation Participation in political campaigns and elections in the United States between 1815 and 1840 contributed to maintaining continuities, such as the continuing prominence of political parties, and fostering change, through increased male suffrage and the emphasis on appealing to a large group of voters when campaigning. The United States was established as a country based on democracy, led by the policies outlined in the constitution. The people were able to vote for representatives, which are then placed in the senate or the house of representatives.

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There are a number of differences in the demographics between the ones that are and are not politically involved. Older people tend to vote more than the younger people by their concern toward the government, as well as the number of white Americans voting more than the other minority races would. The educated will vote more than the uneducated by having more knowledge of the election, along with families with higher income of over $65,000 having time to vote than the low income ones of $35,000 or under. The ones who shows party identification would want to get involved in politics, whereas independent individual would not care as much. People who grew up with specific ideology would want to have a say in politics, in contrast to those who did not.

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The 1965 Immigration Act, which resulted largely from the civil rights movement and Democratic Congress of the 1960s, played a vital role in the change in demographics of the United States (“History of U.S. Immigration Laws,” 2008). Replacing the existing system of assigning specific countries a limit on the number of people that could immigrate to the United States each year, the 1965 Immigration Act established quotas for each hemisphere: 170,000 immigrants a year for the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 a year for the Western Hemisphere (Hatton, 2015). Although the limit was expanded to 700,000 immigrants a year in 1990 and has been adjusted many times in the years since (“History of U.S. Immigration Laws,” 2008), the 1965 Immigration Act has been the most significant of all of the immigration reform legislation because it allowed more immigrants from individual countries to come to the U.S., a

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As the 2016 Presidential race begins to capture the public’s attention, the question, how engaged the public is in the democratic process, remains unanswered. What are ways to promote the public’s informed political involvement is just as pertinent today as it was in at the dawn of the twentieth century known as the Progressive Era. Some progressive activist such as Irene Sargent saw city beautification as a path to encourage civic pride, which leads to an involved public. Others like Professor Charles Zublen believed a continually educated public would become in involved in public hall meetings and a council form of government. Zueblin’s idealistic vision was thwarted by University of Chicago President Harry Pratt Judson’s objections

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When the voter ID law was not yet put into play, the number of registered voters in Texas in 2011 was estimated to 12,841,808. After the law had been put into effect in 2013, there were 13,445,285 eligible voters by the November elections. (4) But, in a 2014 congressional election there was a slim decrease. Fifteen out of seventeen states decreased in Voting-Eligible Population (VEP) turnout between the years 2010 and 2014.

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Participation Paradox is the fact that citizens vote even though a single vote rarely decides an election. In my opinion I do not agree with participation paradox because if a single vote decides an election then this can cause a problem. The problem in participation paradox is that a single individual's vote is rarely decisive because few election are decided by a single vote. A single vote does not make a difference in elections. The point of this paradox is not to suggest that people should vote but rather to highlight that they vote for other reasons.

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Since the 26th amendment there was already a small number of young voters voting. This was commented on in the article where Shin states that “They typically go to the polls in much smaller numbers than their elders.” This has been a trend seen in about every election ever since the 26th amendment was made. They hope that this new age limit will bring a better connection to younger teens and get them into a habit of voting for the rest of their lives (Shin). There was a study done to show that after 21 days of doing an activity, it becomes a habit.

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Nowadays, the young generations are not aware of how important it is to go out to a poll and vote. Without the votes, voter turnout will continue to decline. The citizens should be more aware of what is going on, fight for their beliefs and issues, and make a

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If the age was lowered to vote, i think many kids would take advantage of their

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Last, how income can determine level of participation in a democracy. A person ethnicity plays a role in voter participation. In a study conducted by Political Intelligence,

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There is not just one reason as to why voter turnout is so low, it is actually the collection of a few reasons. For example, some people stated that they were simply out of town, which in the U.S. you are only allowed to vote in your state of residence. Other elderly voters claimed to be sick or had a disability that prevented them from going to the polls to cast their ballot. Another reason could be that people had registration issues of some sort that didn’t allow them to vote. Then there are voters that are discourage that their vote is useless when it comes to voting on any matter.

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The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

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In Austria, where the voting age has been lowered to 16, two thirds of the 16-18 year old age group voted. This proves that if we were to reduce the voting age, it could encourage younger citizens to become even more politically aware and even inspire some to pursue a career in politics. Personally, I think it is an unfair assumption that all millennials are considered to be narcissistic when certain studies have shown that they are intensely passionate about global warming, the corrupt government of North Korea and other pressing issues affecting the whole world. Granted, you do not often see two teenagers arguing over whether this year’s budget aided global warming research or not, but these young Australian citizens have their own way of expressing their political views. They start petitions online, call out politicians on social media and even go out to protests, standing up for what they believe in.

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Imagine your 16 year old self. Would you not want to be voting in elections and make the right decisions towards politics? States in America are already lowering the age when you can vote to 16. Turn out of US voters below 25 at presidential elections fell from 50% in 1972 to 38% in 2012. The Asia-Pacific Economics Blog notes the young demographic is some of the most engaged, and by extending it to a younger age could fuel their passion for many years.

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Spillane also states that the reason for this number is not because this age group is lazy, 87% of the group volunteered or donated (Spillane). There has been a drop in the participation of young adults, more specifically college students, in elections but something needs to be done. Voting is one of the ways that we let our representatives know

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