One of the manifestations of people’s interest in the political system of their country is their participation in elections. Voter turnout shows how important the system is for people and high voter turnout can make a country to be a representative democracy. United States claiming to be the representative of democracy has recently had a lower voter turnout in national elections comparing to European countries. “About 40 percent of the eligible adult population in the United States votes regularly, whereas 25 percent are occasional voters and 35 percent rarely or never vote.” (O’Connor et al, 2009, 347) There are different reasons for this low turnout. In this essay, I am going to investigate the voting behavior of American people by focusing on two presidential elections. 2000 presidential election is chosen as a case for which there was relatively low turnout and 2008 election is chosen as a case in which the U.S. had higher voter turnout comparing to the elections in the last few decades. These two cases should help us find out the reasons for people’s non-voting and voting.
In order to find out the voting behavior of people we need to know the factors that influence voter turnout and also the factors that lead voters to choose one candidate over another. O’ Connor at al (2009) state 6 factors that influence voter turnout. They are education, income, age, gender, race and ethnicity and interest in politics. Regarding the vote choice party identification and issues are stated as factors which influence individual’s choice.
In 2000 presidential election, 51.3 percent of the eligible voters, voted whereas the turnout for 2008 election was 62 percent. In 2000 presidential election the turnout was slightly above the lowest turnout in modern times which was 48.8 percent in 1996 election. However, in 2008 election the turnout was highest since 1996. Why was the turnout low in 2000 election? Considering the recent decrease in voter turnout, why did more people participate in 2008 election?
One of the reasons for low turnout according to McKay et al (2002) is the difficulty of registration for voting in America, as the burden of registration is put on the individual rather than the government. O’Connor et al (2009) add difficulty of absentee voting and great number of elections (twice as many national elections as other western democracies) as the other reasons for low voter turnout. These are the factors that normally affect all elections in the U.S. But as I am focusing on two cases of presidential election, I think we need to consider the situation of America before both elections to find out the reason for low turnout in 2000 election and higher one in 2008.
Before the 2000 election, President Clinton was in power since1992 for two terms. White House website delineates the period of Clinton’s administration as the time when “the U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history.” Moreover, Clinton managed to “point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in the country's history, dropping crime rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus.” Based on this description, therefore, it seems that at the time of 2000 election, there was no issue causing people to be worried. According to McKay et al (2002) low turnout may be a sign that people are generally happy with the system and they see no need to change it. I suppose that might be the reason for the low turnout in 2000 election and also the reason why Al Gore, the candidate of the Democratic Party, won the majority of people’s votes. Although Al Gore did not win the Electoral College votes, I think the majority of people chose him because they were happy with the previous system run by a Democrat. Moreover, economy is both the driving force for people’s participation in election and a determining factor for their choice. O’Connor et al (2009) believe that voters usually “reward the party in government during good economic times and punish the party in government during periods of economic downturn.” so, I think that in 2000 election, people felt no need to participate in the election and since they were happy with the party in government, majority voted for the same party again. However, Republican Party became the party in government and President Bush took office from 2000 up to 2008.
During Bush’s first term of office, United States did not experience a period of peace and stability domestically and got involved in two wars. September 11 endangered American people security leading to the launch of wars on terror. However, passage of time showed that there was no WMD in Iraq which was the reason for the initiation of the war in Iraq. The wars did cost a lot. People felt that President Bush had lied to them and as the American death toll increased day by day, people became disillusioned with the government. All these events together with economic crisis provided the incentive for people to participate in 2008 election. They really felt the need that their participation could make a difference. At this time when people were tired of the existing situation, Obama’s motto, ‘change’, suited public’s taste. Moreover, his rhetoric and his plans for economy and job creation seemed to be more promising than his rival, McCain.
Another important factor which led to the greater participation of minorities especially African-Americans was Obama’s race. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 65 percent of blacks and 49 percent of Hispanics participated in the election resulting in higher voter turnout in 2008. 2008 presidential election also enjoyed an increase in young voter turnout. 53.4 percent of people between 18 to 24 years old voted in 2008 election while in 2000 only 45.3 percent participated. According to Erika Johansson, a project coordinator for Declare Yourself Survey “Many youth were dissatisfied with the current administration and caught onto the idea of change. In addition, young people gravitated toward common issues, such as the economy and climate change, that made it easy to come together.” Among the young people, many voted for Obama explaining that they chose him because for the first time in history he had paid attention to the youth. He was also more appealing to the youth since he was young and charismatic. 2008 presidential election enjoyed high voter turnout due to financial crisis and people disillusionment with Bush administration. Hence, they wanted to the current situation to change. As Obama promised to bring good changes and he was not from the party which people held accountable for their unfavorable situation, he managed to defeat his rival from the opposite party and win the election.
References:
1.McKay, D. Houghton, D. Wroe, A. 2002. Controversies in American Politics and Society. USA. Blackwell Publishing.
2.O’Connor, K. Sabato, L. Yanus, A. 2009. Essentials of American Government. USA. Pearson Education, Inc.
3.http://www.whitehouse.gov, retrieved on 2.11.09.
4.http://www.thetartan.org/2008/11/10/news/elections, retrieved on 01.11.09.
5.http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm , retrieved on 2.11.09
6.http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html, retrieved on 2.11.09
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