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Jessica Luong
Professor Moore
English 1302
6 April 2015
Increasing Voter Turnout
Political participation is becoming less of a priority and civic duty in not only the

younger generations but older generations as well. Unlike other countries where dictators and

monarchs make decisions on behalf of their people, Americans have the right to vote and decide

who will make important decisions for them. Even though voting is an important privilege, a

majority of the United States citizens choose not to exercise their right to vote. People who

chooses not to vote give up their ability to influence governmental policies that affect them.

The colonialists' main complaint against Britain in the period leading up to the Revolutionary

War was that the British parliament did not properly represent their interests when passing

certain laws (Hill) Without a voice in the election process, citizens do not have a right of

deciding who will make important decisions for their country. Voting rates in the United States

have been decreasing within the past national elections. Voting is a right that is taken for

granted in the United States. Across the US, the voter turnout was a little over 36%

(Wattenberg). In the recent 2016, national election only one third of the eligible population

exercised their right to vote. National elections are one of the few times where citizens can

exercise their constitutional right in a democracy to influence who runs their country. The

United States government should allow voting online, turn election day into a national holiday,

and require compulsory voting because voter turnout is extremely low.

A majority of the population do not exercise their right to vote because they cannot get to

the polls and the lines are too long. For most citizens getting to polls can be a hassle, especially
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for the disabled, the sick and people without transportation. It is also difficult for people to vote

when they are on business trips or out of the country. The ability to vote online has the potential

to increase voter turnout for elections due to increased convenience over traditional voting polls

(Powell). The United States citizens have shown a terrific amount of interest in the prospect of

online voting. The country of Estonia has introduced online voting in 2005 for elections that

have been proven to be effective. A project team recently created a verification application to

allow voters to snap photos of a QR code and get instant verification that their vote reached the

governments server (Rockwood 58). Voter turnout in Estonia is much higher compared to the

United States. It is the only country in the world that has switched to this method in terms of

voting. The United States government should consider using the same system in voting to attract

more citizens in exercising their right to vote. In March 59,000 of approximately 200,000

Republicans in the state of Utah registered to vote online for the presidential caucus (Rockwood

65). It was one of the largest online elections in the country. Online voting has been shown to

intrigue more people to vote. Brazil is also another country that has started using the online

voting system. The study documents an 8.2 percent increase in total turnout with the

introduction of i-voting(Hills). The study also finds that age, gender, income, education, and

social media usage are significant predictors of being online-only voters (Spada). The Internet

could eventually benefit and deliver on the promise of full voter participation. Internet

voting has the potential to be used by a wide range of voter types, bridge societal divisions, and

emerge as an inclusive innovative voting technology (Vassil). Majority of the citizens daily

interactions occur online, by adding online voting more people would become involved.

Making Election day a national holiday would encourage more Americans to vote.

Federal holidays are different from public holidays in that federal holidays apply to federal
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employees. Currently, various states have defined different laws giving people the time to vote.

However, these laws vary around a few hours, paid and unpaid. Two hours to vote is still not

enough to increase voter participation (Vassil). The government should give people the day off

to exercise their civic duty because, election day is on a Tuesday when many Americans are busy

and at work. Lawmakers in 1845 also determined that Election Day should be

a Tuesday because farmers often needed a full day on horseback after Sunday to reach polling

places, and Wednesday was often market day (Why Tuesday). Congress determined

that Election Day should always be the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November

because it did not want Election Day to ever fall on-November 1, which is All Saints Day, a

Holy Day of Obligation for Roman Catholics. Americans are busy with work, family, and other

life obligations tend to get in the way of civic duties like voting. Some folks can not afford to

lose wages, while others are not permitted to leave work to go vote. And, of course, because

polling places are determined by a persons home address, theyre often located far away from

that persons work. (Why Should Election Day Be A National Holiday). Americans lead busy

lives and too many people want to vote face barriers due to work and school. Americans treat the

first Tuesday of November like any regular day. Congress should start thinking about turning

election day into a fitting national holiday where only the essential services are allowed to be

called in to work. Citizens need a holiday where the polls become festive places and people

debate on the critical issues. According to Whattenburg One solution would be to move

election day to the second Tuesday of November and combine it with Veterans day

(Whattenburg). Combining these two major events would send a strong signal about the

importance our country attaches to voting. Election day should be a national holiday so that

everyone has the time and opportunity to vote.

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Many Americans choose not to participate in elections because they feel that their vote

does not count. If the government decides to require every eligible citizen to vote then

everybodys vote would count. Americans are used to hearing about elections that are troubled

by low voter-turnout. Many Americans see voting as optional, and in most elections a majority of

eligible voters choose to participate. Many countries have started to use the compulsory voting

system which increases the voter turnout drastically. There are currently 26 countries that

currently employ some form of compulsory voting. Compulsory voting is a system in

which voters are obliged to vote in elections or attend a polling place on voting day (Hill). In

countries which require compulsory voting, citizens are charged with a fine if they fail to vote.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development includes countries that require

compulsory voting. Among OECD countries, the highest turnout rates were in Belgium

(87.2%), Turkey (86.4%) and Sweden (82.6%) (Hill). Australia is one of the most well-known

country for compulsory voting. Compulsory voting was introduced in Australia in 1924 after the

voter turnout of those registered to vote in Australia was as low as 47% Since voting was made

compulsory by the Federal Government, voter turnout has remained around 94-96%. President

Obama expressed his support for mandatory votingIt would be transformative if everybody

voted [] The people who tend not to vote are young, theyre lower income, theyre skewed

more heavily toward immigrant groups and minorities(Hills). As a result, countries that

require compulsory voting have a higher voter turnout rate compared to the United States.

Compulsory voting is a way to guarantee higher voter turnout Most people will argue that being

required to vote is a violation to our rights as citizens, but a required vote is no more than having

to pay taxes. Compulsory voting is becoming an important topic in the United States to
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potentially increase voter turnout. It has shown to be affective by different countries. If the

government decides to require compulsory voting, voter turnout rate can be higher.

Despite the importance of democracy in America, voter turnout is still low. This has led

some people to worry about the authority of our government. National elections for Congress or

the Presidency are the most important elections that citizens should pay attention to. An election

with high voter turnout strengthens the democracy and demonstrates that the elected government

is in power because of its people. In the past national elections only one third of eligible citizens

exercised their right to vote. Many citizens have different reasons for not going out to vote, the

top reasons for not voting are a reported illness, or disability, and being too busy or having

conflicting schedules. Thousands of Americans are unable to vote for the simple reason that they

cannot make it to the polls. The government should allow voters to vote online, turn election day

into a national holiday, or require compulsory voting to potentially increase voter turnout. To

encourage more citizens in exercising their right to vote, the government needs to address the

problem of low voter turnout in order to increase voter turnout rates.

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Works Cited

HILL, LISA and JASON BRENNAN. "Should Voting Be Mandatory?." Junior Scholastic, vol.

114, no. 8, 02 Jan. 2012, p. 9. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=mih&AN=70474724&site=ehost-live.

Powell, Anne, et al. "E-Voting Intent: A Comparison of Young and Elderly Voters." Government

Information Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, July 2012, p. 361. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1016/j.giq.2012.01.003.

ROCKWOOD, KATE. "Getting out the Online Vote." PM Network, vol. 30, no. 8, 8/1/2016, pp.

56-61. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=bft&AN=117310664&site=ehost-live.

Spada, Paolo, et al. "Effects of the Internet on Participation: Study of a Public Policy

Referendum in Brazil." Journal of Information Technology & Politics, vol. 13, no. 3, Jul-

Sep2016, pp. 187-207. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/19331681.2016.1162250.

Vassil, Kristjan, et al. "The Diffusion of Internet Voting. Usage Patterns of Internet Voting in

Estonia between 2005 and 2015." Government Information Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, July

2016, p. 453. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.giq.2016.06.007.

Wattenberg, Martin P. "Should Election Day Be a Holiday?." Atlantic, vol. 282, no. 4, Oct. 1998,

pp. 42-45. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=lfh&AN=1135174&site=ehost-live.

"Why Should Election Day Be A National Holiday?" Why Should Election Day Be A National

Holiday? | Care2 Causes. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Why Tuesday?." Current Events, vol. 110, no. 8, 11/1/2010, p. 5. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mih&AN=54855706&site=ehost-live.
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