Many Americans don't take part in the presidential elections for different types of reasons. I believe that many have some psychological reasoning; there is something that causes them to just give up . It seems as if the main cause is due to civic competence because many Americans feel as if no changes will be made and don't take part in any of it. America’s voter turnout is so low compared to other wealthy democracies for so many reasons; civic competence, laziness, age, lack of education and political efficacy.
From 1972-1992, less than 55% of high school dropouts voted in the presidential elections( Berke 1). This shows that people who haven’t gone to school usually tend to be less involved in political affairs then those who have. This lack of involvement is from lack of political efficacy, as many uneducated people don’t understand how the government works. They may have political ideologies of how it should function and what should change but in general, the uneducated don’t know what the exact problem is or how to fix it. When people don’t go to school to learn about and understand the way our country is controlled they end up not knowing how or what to change to their benefit. During elections, the uneducated may know the two different candidates and what their goals are if they come into election; but the matter is that people don’t know what the problem is so they don’t know what will fix it. This is often the problem with uneducated people. They may understand the changes they want in the government, but since they aren’t aware of how it functions they aren’t sure which candidate will best deliver these changes. Education; therefore is a very important issue when it comes to voter turnout. Since people don’t know how the candidates will change the issues that they have, then they won’t be sure to which candidate they think will be able to do so. Politicians, usually in their 40’s - 50’s, often target the large amount of the population who they can connect with, the middle-aged adults. They list the issues that the adults find as issues and tell of the changes they will make if elected. Young adults; however, are often left out of the elections since the problems don’t concern them because most dint really understand the politics world. It’s simple, the politicians don’t target young adults because they don’t contribute much money and often don’t show up to elections anyways. This; on the other hand, is only because young adults have no issues being covered in the elections so they don’t vote on problems that don’t concern them. In the elections of 1972-1992, less than 50% of young adult’s voted(Black 2).This could be changed and voter turnout could rise if politicians considered more of the population, rather than to just the middle-aged adults. Politicians need to cover the issues of all generations aiming towards the good of the country. I feel like that they should make the people feel more involved and try to encourage them by showing them that they vote does make a difference. The results from my interviews show that the people know generally what they want changes they want but aren't very sure what candidate would be able to fulfill that duty. I found that people who don't really watch the elections generally vote for who their friends/ family vote for. Usually those are the ones that are ages 18-22 because most are still used to taking on the same political view as to the one they have been taught all their lives. In this scenario it’s more of a learned behavior and depending on that person, they may continue with those same views that they were taught or surround by. There are more countless explanations absence of trust in government, the degree of partisanship among the population, lack of general interest in politics, institutional barriers to voting, convenience, and a failure of faith in the true effect of voting. Convenience impacts voter turnout. In the United States, in all but one state,
