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Bailey Adams Commented [BA1]: Need to check my in-text citations

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Dr. Angela Mitchell

UWRT-1104

13 November 2017

Research Essay (placeholder) Commented [BA2]: Really need to think of a good title
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Today we are seeing that less and less people are turning out to vote in our elections.

Overall voter participation is dropping, and political engagement is low. Only about half of

eligible voters turned out in last years presidential election, and PBS reports that the midterm

elections of 2014 only had a 36.4% turnout rate (pbs.org). This differs greatly from many of the Commented [BA3]: I would cite this! - Sydney

European countries, who have turnout rates in the 60s and 70s. As a political science major

here I often find myself asking the question: why is this? Why does the United States have one

of the lowest voter turnout rates of the free world? After some research, I found that there are

tons of factors that play into whether a person will vote or even engage politically in any way.

These reasons include but are not limited to apathy of our process, a lack of education of our

political system, the fact that we have a lot more elections going on than the European countries,

and circumstances and laws that make it harder for people to get out to the polls. Commented [BA4]: Sydney made a comment suggesting I
take out an unnecessary sentence - me

One of the biggest reasons for our declining political participation is apathy toward the Commented [BA5]: Need to add statistics - me

system. Many people tend to grow up either not caring about the system or being upset with it.

Study.com states that citizens may doubt their ability to make a difference, or minorities may Commented [BA6]: Check citation? - me

feel under-represented in government (study.com). With the large amount of people in our

country, some may feel like their vote may be lost in millions of others, and is therefore not

worth anything. On the issue of minorities, often they fall victim to voter suppression tactics
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(which I will go into more detail about later), and lose their hope in the system because of that.

These tactics are meant to keep a certain group of people from voting because of their allegiance

with the rival party, and that tactic has been successful in driving down the vote. This leads

people to believe that politics is a dishonest business and makes people apathetic to the process.

This also happens when we see in the news and media all about the newest scandals and

controversies, and get the impression that politics is an unethical system. Another large reason

for voter apathy is that many of these people dont know enough about our system, and that

comes from our education system.

Our education system is an essential piece in teaching children how the world works, so it

would make sense that they put an emphasis on teaching students about how our political system. Commented [BA7]: Removed unnecessary right? at the
end of this sentence. me
This is unfortunately not the case. All 50 states require some sort of class in civics in order to

graduate high school, but thats not nearly enough to get students ready for our political climate.

This is evident in the fact that on the NAEP Civics Assessment, only 25% of students reached

the "proficient" standard. This is a very interesting and alarming statistic, especially if all 50

states do indeed require a class in civics in order to graduate. Civic Youth.org researched and

found that when there are more civics opportunities in schools, overall political participation

goes up for all students who are involved.

One thing that differentiates us from the European world is the frequency of our

elections.

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So there are tons of different reasons for people not showing up to vote in our elections, Commented [BA8]: Removed unnecessary as you can
see between so and there - me
whether it be conflicting circumstances, constant and repetitive elections, lack of knowledge of
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the subject because of our education systems shortcomings, or even just straight up apathy

towards it all. Of all of these factors I would say that our education system and conflicting

circumstances have the largest impact on turnout. This is because our schools are really what

shape future generations, and they have shown to be doing an ineffective job at teaching our

children the essentials of government. The circumstances can be tough to deal with because

sometimes people just dont have time to vote because of work, or are ineligible because of

criminal records or registration issues. As a political science major here I will be continuing my

research into this topic, and to learn more about the solutions we can create in order to get more

people out and involved. It is my belief that the nation is at its strongest when the most people

are out and making their voices heard, so it is only right that I continue this research.

Work Cited