Voter Turnout in US
An exerpt from a hilarious article on Americans and their ability and fascination with voting.
Turnout in presidential elections has held steady at roughly 50 percent of the voting age population for the past 75 years. The United States placed 139th among 172 nations whose voting records were measured by Sweden's International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Italy ranked highest, with voter turnout exceeding 92 percent.
Here is a link to the Sweden's IDEA study.
"Americans Seem Willing to Vote for Everything but an Actual Candidate" is the hilarious article that the stats come from.
Mr. Thompson
posted by erdecker @ 2:37 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
You should look at my post at the bottom of the Hilary vs. Rudy thread... I think I beat Peter Funt to that statistic ;)
The article states:
"By 2012 or 2016 there could be a serious movement to have voting in presidential elections conducted via the Internet. This will raise questions about the nature of democracy."
One more step to direct democracy, baby! The internet would make it much easier for the average Joe to vote on things such as "Should we go to war with Iran?" or "Should people be allowed to own guns?" thereby making our country more of a democracy. Maybe if people feel they get to vote on the actual issues and not just on some phony who lies out of the side of their mouth, there would be higher voter turnout (although would it really be "turnout" if they just stayed at home?)
Just a quick side note. If you go to the link Spencer posted in the symposium blog you will find a poll at the top right of the blog.
In 2004, though, voter turnout was at the highest point in years, so maybe things are looking up?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501965.html
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