General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I got really pissed off today [View all]Genki Hikari
(1,766 posts)In the mid-terms the 100 million number has sometimes held true, but not in Presidential years. Even in the worst voting year ever, 1996, when only 49% of eligible adults cast a vote, it was only 90 million. Yeah, that's high, but it still didn't reach 100.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/voter-turnout-in-presidential-elections
I realize that it's hard to make sense of their chart. Wikipedia copied the data for their page about voter participation during presidential years, and it's much friendlier on the eyes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections
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Several factors go into voter apathy, and it's not all because the populace is too stupid or lazy to vote.
One thing that hardly gets mentioned: Voter fatigue plays a bigger role than most realize. The bombardment of each election season with the ads and mailings and news coverage wears on a person. Much of that is because we flat-out have too many elections. Some locations conduct an election of some kind
EVERY.
SINGLE.
YEAR.
Throw in runoffs, and it's no wonder that voters get tired of the constant electioneering.
It may be time to look at making all local offices 2-year, at a minimum, to give voters a breather in between.