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Electoral College Voter Turnout Analysis

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For the first time in at least thirty years, the April 2014 D.C. primary election had a record-breaking low voter turnout, and on December 16th, the D.C. Council approved a plan that combined both the local and federal primary to be in June for the year of 2016 and September for the year of 2018. The issues started when the D.C. Council was forced to move the primary date from the traditional mid-September date to satisfy a federal law that was “designed to give overseas members of the military 45 days after a primary to receive and return absentee ballots for a November general election”(Davis, “D.C. primary election date to remain a moving target”).To fulfill that requirement, the D.C. Council decided last year to move the primary to April, which was 5 months earlier than the traditional mid-September date, and overhaul the election calendar; however this change did not work very well and the voter turnout was the lowest in over three decades. The timing of having the primary very early in the year caught many of the citizens by surprise, and is at least a little bit to blame. …show more content…
primary election dates are very much connected to the political process and turnouts of the overall election. The change of the dates potentially can change the outcome of the D.C. district and the three Electoral College votes that D.C. has can easily be the difference between winning the Presidential election and losing the Presidential election, in that case. The media has also taken the role of gatekeeper to update the citizens that this change is happening so that when it is time for the change to be intact, the people will have prior knowledge that his is happening and the voter turnout may be slightly higher. Especially for those that always forget that when things are or always remember only after the things have happened, media is very helpful and can help this cause and change the

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