POLS 125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Voting Age, Voter Registration, Nineteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
1 Mar 2020
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Total us population includes people who can"t vote: those under 18, felons and immigrants. Surprising that turn out is low in the united states because: In november 2016, 139 million votes were cast for president: educational attainment has increased since the 1960s, poll taxes and literacy tests have been removed. However, voter id has replaced this to an extent: registration procedures have simplified, as have voting ones. Voter turnout is a political strategy because of how close elections have been in past decades. A high number, in and of itself isn"t necessarily a sign of a good democracy. It could reflect authoritarianism, forced voting, manipulation, etc. Us ranks comparatively low lined up with other oecd countries. The us has low benefits for voters and high costs. The single biggest drop in voter turnout was after the 19th amendment passed: the pool of voters increased, but women"s turn out wasn"t big, so the rate of the overall turn out fell.
