...Politics 10/20/2014 Voting Requirements Effect on Turnout The right to vote is a very important aspect of United States government, the voting process present itself as the representative act that the fundamental basis to our Democratic system here in the USA. Unfortunately if you go back not even a century ago African Americans and women was denied this fundamental right to vote, securing the right to vote in United States was a long battle both for African-Americans and women. We can see how voting outcomes is essential to the true democratic process by having tight voting requirement it hinders the process and effects turnout. Voting Turnout, while undergoing new legislation since the repeal of the Jim Crow Laws, are still undergoing voting suppression, still disproportionately effecting racial minorities and the poor. To truly understand how voting requirements effect voter’s turnout we would have to look at the history of voting requirements in the U.S. Throughout United States history there have been many barriers that states have imposed that restrict voting rights especially for racial minorities and the poor. One requirement that definitely made voting a little more difficult was with requiring Americans to register prior to voting this meant that not only a citizen was care enough to go out and vote on election night they also must register prior to doing so. Registration was mainly intended to stop voter fraud, so each state was allowed to create their own registration...
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...Mandatory Voting as a Response to Declining Voter Turnout In many parts of the world, the act of voting is seen as an act that empowers citizens and an act that gives them a voice. However, with the decline of voter turnout, this voice seems to be coming from a select few, leaving political scientists wondering about the remaining of the population. In response to this situation, many have suggested making the act of voting, a mandatory one. Making voting a compulsory act for all citizens does provide both the citizens and the political system with many benefits. However, there are those that oppose this idea, stating possible disadvantages and contradiction in ideologies. The matter in hand is tough for any nation to deal with but making voting a mandatory act proves to have more advantages than disadvantages. With the issue on hand, each side of the debate has to be given an equal opportunity to present their ideas in hopes of coming up with a viable way to deal with the situation. The hopeful outcome of making voting mandatory in countries has shown is to have an increase in voter turnout. This can be approached in different ways. For example, countries such as Switzerland, Peru, Argentina and Australia impose fines on people who do not vote. (Henry Milner 11). Other countries use other methods to single out non-voters. In Peru, voters carry around stamped cards that confirm they have voted in the election and these cards are presented at public offices for services to...
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...Angela Choi 111 ND-A Achoi5892@gmail.com Informative Speech Outline Topic: The importance of voting Type of Speech: issue Strategy for Presenting Content: Explanation General Purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: To inform my audience the importance of voting. Thesis Statement: Voting is essential and should be exercised by everyone because one vote can make a difference. Introduction: How many people are registered to vote? How many people are registered to vote and have voted? This is the dilemma the United States is facing today. Many people are registered to vote, but choose not to vote. It is important to exercise your voting rights because the decision our government officials make can have a huge impact on our lives. Voting in any type of election, from local races to Presidential primaries, provides an important way to voice your opinions regarding elected leaders and overall policies. In addition, voting decides our future by electing officials who reflect your own views. Therefore, voting is essential and should be exercised by everyone because one vote can make a difference. The ability to vote is one of the most cherished Constitutional Rights that many have fought, marched, and died for over the centuries. 1. Many people do not realize that voting is so vital that it can even have an impact on your daily life. Voting is the best way to...
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...democratic process should treat all citizens as free and equal persons. As applied to the electoral process this requires that each citizen equal opportunity to have his or her vote equally counted. Contention 1: Super PACs decrease voter turnout Subpoint A: Voter turnout is a pre-requisite to the election process A flourishing democracy presupposes citizens who care, who are willing to take part, and who are capable of helping to shape the common agenda of a society. Participation through the act of voting, is always seen as an essential prerequisite of stable democracy. Subpoint B: Super PACs decrease voter turnout by 25% “Unlimited spending by supposedly independent super PACs is creating widespread perceptions of corruption and undermining public confidence that elected officials serve in the public interest, The perception that super PACs are corrupting government is making Americans disillusioned, and an alarming number say they are less likely to vote this year. Americans say they are less likely to vote because big donors to super PACs have so much more influence over elected officials than average Americans. Americans believe super PAC spending will lead to corruption Subpoint C: Negative campaigning also leads to decreased voter turnout One reason the campaign has been so negative is the skyrocketing involvement of interest groups, who have increased their activity by 1100 percent over four years ago Contention 2: State Level Judicial Elections are harmed...
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...way to solve the problem of low voting turnout. He structured his argument stating two of the biggest problem with low turnout and solution to increase turnout. The first problem is that the election votes are not a representation of the overall votes towards a policy or elected official. The other problem is that certain groups vote in greater number than other groups, which show a disproportionate influence on the government and its policies. This illustrates bias states Lijphart, giving already-privileged citizens an advantage favoring their interest and the low-privileged interests are not rewarded. To solve these problems Lijphart believes that a minimum of 90 percent turnout...
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...corrupting the rest of the election. This is due to the attention they pay to “swing states”; defined as “a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning” (“The Definition of Swing State”). Candidates will often focus their campaign efforts towards these states because they can be the key to victory. In fact. “Swing states are usually the only ones who ever see the candidates campaigning for election” because of the advantages associated with them. Furthermore, the Electoral College system has created divisiveness between states by the use of the red-state blue-state system. These terms have become the basis for discrimination and prejudice over the course of American history. They have also “imposed the false notion that political ideology is entirely defined by geography” (Rich, Alex K., Heather Newton.). Simply put, red and blue state labels assign false identities to the many Democrats in red states, Republicans in blue states, and independent voters everywhere. In addition, these terms give candidates the “mistaken impression that an entire state supports them simply because they won the plurality in that state” (Rich, Alex K., Heather Newton.). This can also alter their campaign efforts, as well as create false information about the...
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...and software tampering — a man-in-the-middle attack somewhere between the voting terminal (be it at home or at a polling station) and the end point where tabulation occurs — but these can be ameliorated by instigating a chain of custody and public, open inspection of the systems used. In short, it’s not like the US lack the ability or technology to run a secure, internet-based election. Just imagine what would happen if suddenly everyone with an internet connection — anyone with a smartphone — could vote. Heck, why not go the whole hog and enable voting by SMS? On election day, just open up an app on your phone and cast a vote; it would take 30 seconds, tops. The entire landscape of voting would change overnight. For some 40 years, voter turnout has decreased across the Western world — and almost exclusively in younger generations. The decline isn’t fully...
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...The 1963 historic March on Washington and the subsequent passing of some sweeping civil rights laws spurred African-Americans who had grown angry and frustrated over the slow rate of their social and economic progress. They were now finally prepared to realize their potential force in order to exercise a decisive measure of political control over their own lives. Consequently, several African-American mayors of major cities, especially in the industrial North, were elected opening the floodgates of other African-American elected officials throughout the nation, including city council-members, aldermen, school board members, governors and presidents. After winning the primary and the general election with 95 percent of the African-American vote (At the same time, Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio), Richard G. Hatcher became the first African-American mayor of Gary, Indiana, and the first in the state of Indiana. He was elected in November 1967 and inaugurated in January 1968. Hatcher served an unprecedented five terms and as one of the beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Movement, he set the tone and was used as the standard by which many African-American mayors, that came after him, throughout the nation, were evaluated or criticized. Hatcher broke the racial glass ceiling for a host of African-American mayors who followed him. In the light of this watershed moment, it is the purpose of this paper to analyze how Richard Gordon Hatcher became the first African-American...
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...Democracy Voter Turnouts in Canada: Restoring a Civic Duty Grant Macewan University December 6th 2011 Political Science 101 Term Paper In a democratic system it is vital that citizens engage in their civic duty of voting; only then can a proper governing body be chosen to represent the will of the majority. Abraham Lincoln got to the core of democracy when he stated, “the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” In the last 50 years of Canadian history we have begun to see a decline in voter turnout; ranging from 80% of citizens voting in 1962, gradually dwindling to 59.1% in the year 2008 (Dickerson, Flanagan & O'Neill, 2010). It is important to understand why citizens vote the way they do in order to determine what may or may not be successful in regards to winning a majority government; factors that influence the voter’s choices include socio-demographic characteristics, beliefs and values, partisanship and confidence in political leaders. There is a great deal of debate surrounding which policies could increase voter based participation in democratic systems, but the most irrefutably successful policies would be those applied in systems of proportional representation ("Statistics by country," 2011). Voting is part of Canadian civic duty; unfortunately not all Canadians exercise their right to vote. Over the past 20 years the Canadian voter turnout has been on a steady decline, from 75.3% turnout in 1988, to 59.1% voter turnout in 2008...
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...Voting Problem in America Voting Problem in America Numerous studies have been steered to support with observing for influences that will demonstration by public do not contribute in voting. It has remained a mounting difficulties with appropriate voters not registering and object their ballot. Over the decades, Americans have vanished trace with the antiquity of voting. Voting for in determinations supports in providing underpinning on why society do not participate in voting. Analyses provide tangible influences with why societies do not vote with illustration clusters support. Discovery of behaviors will show the unabridged development with the existing system supports with the American community. The 2008 elections enquiry provides awareness with the diverse motives from highest to lowest. Giving some understanding on the origin of the unruly and outcome resolutions to battle these problems. Examination can transform that are currently in domicile and assuring voting contributions on the ability to speak on the issues and distresses. Observing at other countries for potential solutions to the problem can be one riposte for the United States voting delinquent. Using tads and shards can support with altering he existing classification that does not work. Without transformation, the voting contribution will endure to diminish. The history behind the voting in America helps wonder why this pass civil liberty has fallen to many Americans waist side in today’s world. As America...
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...DEVELOPING AND MANAGING VOTERS REGISTRATION SYSTEM Introduction Voters’ registration is a process in which qualifying citizens are registered in order for them to be eligible to vote in an election. Voters registration is a process whose output is the voters’ roll which is basically a list containing the necessary details of all individuals who are eligible to cast their votes in an election. Governments operating under democratic principles around the world have to invest in this process in order to ensure smooth transition of power when time comes. Elections have been a major source of violence and consequently wars when one side feels that it wasn’t given a fair chance in the process. With this in mind, it is important for states to have proper voters roll in order to carry out elections in a credible and peaceful manner. If this process is not conducted in a transparent and collaborative manner, the credibility of the election process will as well be put into jeopardy at the end of the day. It this process which sets the stage of an election to be acceptable or add more credible reasons to rendered the election as not free and fair. In Tanzania, early voters’ registrations involved writing details of voters in a ‘counter’ book and have that book retrieved for verification on the Election Day. Voters were not given any sort of identification for them to keep as a form of authentication; no photographs of the ‘would be’ voters were being taken or kept by the registration...
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...AFRICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY Name: Eric Wahinya – 11JCS005 Unit: Software Engineering Code: CSC320. Title: Assignment 2 Lecturer: Mr. Njuki Due Date: 26th June 2013 1. Using the waterfall model; model the March 4th 2013 voting process in Kenya. The software process models in software engineering are the workflow model which shows the sequence of activities in a process along with the inputs, outputs and dependencies, the dataflow or activity model that represents a process as a set of activities each of which curves out some data showing how the input to a process is transformed to an output and finally the role or otherwise referred to as the action model which represents the roles of people involved in the software and the activities for which they are responsible. The role or action model is divided into a number of categories and the waterfall approach is one of these categories aside from the others which are the evolutionary development and the CASE scenario. The waterfall approach takes the fundamental process activities of specification, development, validation and evolution and represents them as separate process phases such as requirements specification, software design, implementation, testing and so on. (Sommerville, pg 65). The figure below shows the software lifecycle as explained by the waterfall approach; Figure 1. The Software Lifecycle. (Sommerville, pg 66) Before the March 4th elections that took place in Kenya a number of preparations were made...
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...because it will allow the government to be held responsible. There are several reasons suggesting a ‘political participation’ which can be evident from the current turnout at general elections because they have been considerably lower than average between the years of 1945-1997. In the election year 1992 the turnout was 77.7% which gradually declined to 59.5% in 2001 which highlights the significant difference of election participation decline as the years went by. This perhaps could be due to the number of the population disagreeing with the ideologies of the political parties and have perhaps different strong ideas thus resulting in them in not turning up to the elections. Also, the fall in turnout levels could be because of people progressing in the industrial sectors as society is modernising so this occupies people and doesn’t allow them to make the time to actually go vote. Moreover, another contributing factor to the ‘participation crisis’ is that party membership has been declining drastically over the last thirty years as during 1980 the membership of all parties was a staggering 1,693,156 as well as 4.12% membership of total electorates. This is highly contrasting to the figures of 2008 where there were was a huge decrease to 476,000 membership of all parties, with 0.95% membership of total number of voters, making it obvious that there had been a dramatic decline in political participation. On the other hand, many would disagree as they believe in fact that there is...
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...attempts at voter suppression and the challenges to these attempts, examine the strengths and weaknesses of the electoral system in the United States. Name: Winston Walker Course Code: GOVT 1000 ID #: 607005957 No electoral system is perfect, but the strengths and weakness of the electoral system is based on the system of government used. The two most common systems of government are the Federal system and the Unitary system. According to dictionary.com, the term electoral system refers to, the legal system for making democratic choices. The United States of America operate under a federal system of government, which by definition, refers to a government in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments. The electoral system of the United States is set up in this manner, you vote for a mayor, senator, a member of the House of Representatives, you vote directly for that person. However, when you vote for president, you are really voting for an elector who has pledged to represent that candidate. The electors chosen by each state are called the Electoral College. This consists of 538 members, comprising 100 senators, 435 congressmen, and 3 members from the District of Columbia. States with large populations, like California have over 50 electoral votes, while sparsely populated states like Alaska has only 3 electoral votes. This system of government makes the electoral system highly susceptible to voter suppression...
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...electors. Rather, it provides only that the electors shall be appointed as the state legislatures direct. Once a state determines that electors shall be chosen by popular vote it has wide latitude to determine eligibility to vote” (Hardaway 106). The electors are chosen based on the amount of House of Representatives and Senators each state has in Congress; the few hundred electors controls the United States vote (ABC News). This system is not democratic because the people are not the direct electors of the President, elite men and women of both political parties are in charge of choosing. If the system is kept that way, there is no real reason in having the eligible voters in voting because at the end of the day, their vote does not count causing various effects in the elections such as low voter turnout and lower voter efficacy.Citizens of the United States are discouraged to vote because they feel that their vote does not count since their government has established a group of people to “double-check” their preferred candidate. Why hasn’t the government abolish the Electoral College if more than 54% of the United States population believes that the popular vote should be the only counted votes? (Polling Report).Based on the polls, the majority of the United States population believes the current electoral system is incorrect, just by simply eliminating the Electoral College the system will become democratic because the people will directly elect the President. Allowing the members...
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