I don't hold much to the theory that it is too much paperwork (it took me less then three minutes to fill out the form). I really think it is just laziness. By the way, to reiterate, I am only talking about Registration, not actually voting practice. P.S.: I also thought it was hilarious that you could draw them a map if you didn't know your address.
Laziness. Why would someone take the time and effort to vote when they really don't care about what happens as long as they're fine and even if they would vote it wouldn't make much of a difference. I think we must teach children in school to be more political active and caring when they grow up, because as it is today people just don't care.
Pretty much laziness people don't fell like they can make any differnce anyway anymore. Also when you do register to vote here in the US the government likes to sign your name down on other things like the Selective service as I figured out in the mail about a after a month after voting for the frist time. In the long run its just that people don't care about politics.
Well, you have to sign up for the Selective Service anyway, so I guess it saved you some paperwork. Arn't they considerate .
Well I guess they are. Thank you government for letting me be put in harms way if you decide to put we in harms way.
Some may be doing that to dodge some legal rules, or they could not care about the political system as a whole.
Or the U.S. can have compulsory voting, like in Australia, Argentina, Mexico or Brazil. Or America could strive to have people turn out for voting without compulsory measures, like the Scandinavian states, Austria, Belgium, Italy, etc... Then again, there's a ton of factors that work against this. You could literally write volumes about it. In short, some people are lazy. Some people are electorally fatigued. Some people are not civic minded. Some people don't care about issues or parties involved, or feel engaged with them. Again, you could just go on and on...
We actually discussed Australia in my Civics class. We came to the conclusion that most Americans would rally against a compulsory voting system. Its kinda weird, I know. Edit: And who voted paperwork? The voter registration form is literally the smallest amount of paperwork i've ever had to do.
lazines and total apathy. A lot of them probably think their voice has no weight anyways and that it does not matter.
You have to register yourself to vote in the US? I assumed that it would be something like here in the Netherlands, you get a pass in your mail a few weeks before elections and you have to take that with you when you go voting. I assumed it would be something similar in all democratic countries.
Nope you can to register after you turn 18. Emphasis on can. You do not have to. All you do after you register is show ID at the voting place.
Actually it's different for each state, but that's true in PA... It's kind of an interesting question. Especially when you consider registration and turnout are fairly different (in 08 64% registered and something around 55% voted). I couldn't really say why, but I'm inclined to go with voter apathy
That would definately be the case, at least, that's what I've come to for most people who don't register or vote. If they do not think of politics at all, share the ideals of any party, or just do not like any party of that country at all, why would they want to vote? My parents don't vote at all, my father is a pale English 'Rasta' and my mother is the daughter of two Portuguese from Azores. Both do not like politics at all. My grandmother said to me last elections: "I don't like any of them arseholes, but I'm voting for the Conservatives anyways, might as well keep them here." Does the personal example here help with this discussion? I think so, just a little bit.
Actually voting is compulsory in Belgium. On the issue itself, yeah its easy to blame people for being apathic towards the entire process. But thats what you get when you have a system where the overwhelming majority of the people's only means of actually influencing policy somewhat is putting a cross on a piece of paper a few dozen times in their lives, so that that little cross can be drowned in a sea of millions of other little crosses. Notwithstanding the fact that the actual choices this little cross represents are generally out of the control of most people. So the only people that actually show some intrest towards these things are the people who see it as a hobby, in the same way another person might be intrested in footbal for a hobby. So if the only thing the teacher does is read whats in the textbook out loud while standing in front of his class, while not engaging with his students at all, is it then odd that the the majority of the students, except for a few nerds sitting at the front , react with apathy whenever the teacher asks a question?
Really? I was under the impression that it wasn't compulsory anymore. http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/3625/D...06/06/Niet-stemmers-riskeren-geen-straf.dhtml Just was wondering
Technically its still illegal, they just dont prosecute it anymore because they got better things to do.
