Especially after this recent election, the issue of voter turnout becomes increasingly pressing for the country as a whole. However, America is notorious for its lack of voter participation, especially in state and local elections. Given this state of political apathy and the added weight of our current election, America should have mandatory voting.
The highest voter turnout in American history occurred in the 1876 presidential election, where 81.8 percent of the eligible voting population participated. Voter participation has been on a steep decline since, ranging from 50 to 60 percent since 2000.
Mandatory voting forces citizens to become more informed about political issues. If people have to be politically active, they will want to pay attention to political issues so that they have a better understanding on what they are voting for.
On the other hand, allowing citizens to abstain from voting causes them to be unaware of the people who are representing them and the laws that are being passed.
One of the worst areas of voter turnout is in midterm elections; only about 40 percent of the eligible voting population votes in non-presidential election years. As a result, these elections are not completely representative of the American people, which explains why Congress has a disapproval rating of 76 percent.
The choice to not vote creates a perpetual cycle of pessimism and dissatisfaction with the government and with political candidates. A current example of the perpetual cycle of dissatisfaction with political candidates is the Democratic and Republican nominees for President: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Our two main presidential candidates for this election have the worst favorability ratings in their political party’s history. According to a recent poll by Huffpost, Hillary Clinton has an unfavorable rating of 54 percent and Donald Trump has an unfavorable rating of 61.5 percent. If these candidates are disliked, how did they become nominated to begin with?
One of the reasons that explain the high unfavorability of both presidential candidates is the number of people who participated in the primaries. According to Pew Research, only 28.5 percent of the eligible voting population participated in the primaries.
The hatred for these candidates will affect the voter turnout in the general election. The nomination of unfavorable presidential candidates creates the belief that votes do not matter and that voters should not bother voting in the first place.
However, mandatory voting eliminates the lack of political efficacy. A vote does not truly matter until the government makes it matter and ensures every person that can vote does vote.
Instead of treating voting like a choice with minimal consequence, voting should be seen as the most important civic responsibility a citizen has in a democracy. How democratic is a system of government when half of its citizens decide not to participate in choosing their representatives?
-Crystal Foretia
