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U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

pewresearch.org

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Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#31

Post by [deleted] »

vinay427 wrote: post #27
jahaja wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people even need to register to vote? In Sweden every eligible voter receive their "voting card" by mail a couple of weeks before an election.

There's no common official record on where someone lives in the US, as well as many other countries in the anglosphere. You don't officially register at an address when you move there, although updating drivers licenses which are state issued are sometimes optionally connected to voter registrations (which are often county or municipality-managed).

[deleted]

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#32

Post by C1sc0cat »

082349872349872 wrote: post #12
docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

My explanation for swiss voter turnout: if it ain't broke don't fix it. Two anecdotes: - the presidency rotates among members of the executive committee, on a yearly basis. Cynically, the president exists so if a foreign head of state wants to have dinner, they have someone with whom to do it. - when a referendum comes to the ballot, we don't just have to vote it up or down. The government gets a chance to say "yes,…

Oh so you have a "remit" option then - cool

So how do the electorate hold the executive to account if they say the will do x instead of y but actually do nothing or something else entirely?

Can you have a reference back on a subsequent referendum to a motion that was remitted in a previous referendum - that's technically the democratic way to do it.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#33

Post by C1sc0cat »

willis936 wrote: post #13
jahaja wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump said it out loud didn't he? That the republican party would cease to exist, or similar, if voting-by-mail were widely allowed.

It’s what we all know: current GOP ideals do not line up with majority representation. The GOP would be forced to change its policy to fall in line with the people’s will: a true tragedy, I know. We currently have a tyranny of minority.

That's because of entryism by far right activists - the sensible Republicans need to talk to Tony Blair and Gordan Brown about that.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#36

Post by docdeek »

stefan_ wrote: post #18
docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

It's hilarious how deeply ingrained the insanity is. Registering to vote is just not a thing outside the US. The percentage of people who come to vote, then vote is all of them .

>> Registering to vote is just not a thing outside the US.

It’s absolutely a thing in Australia and NZ, and in the world’s largest democracy, India, too.

https://www.aec.gov.au/enrol/ https://vote.nz/enrol-to-vote/enrol-check-or-update/ https://eci.gov.in/voter/voter-registration/

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#37

Post by zeveb »

Is this really relevant, though? Republican democracy means that the people are sovereign within the laws they themselves have set up and may change; universal suffrage means that everyone[0] may vote. But isn't the choice not to vote itself just as much of a signal as voting? I know that some countries have compulsory voting, but that has always rubbed me the wrong way. If someone simply wishes to sit out, that seems to me to be his right.

Given the reasonably-established effect of weather on elections[1], I am uncertain that forced votes are particularly high-information votes.

0: well, not children or felons

1: e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5463178/

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#38

Post by js8 »

bildung wrote: post #30
wickedwiesel wrote: post #2

Given the current discussion on political apathy in the US I think this data fits well into this pattern. Looking at the voter turnout for United States (2016) of the of voting-age population you have merely 55.70% voting. (For comparison, the scale goes up to 87.21% in Belgium). Only roughly HALF of the population casts their votes in federal elections. Since a lot of the current policing decisions are made on a sta…

One easy change with major effects (that is law in almost all OECD countries IIRC) would be to have votes only on sundays or official holidays. Having to vote on a work day disproportionally disadvantages workers.

Also, what's up with these horrible queues at polling places? In my country (Czechia), I rarely have to wait when I come to the polling place.

We have one polling place (one ballot box, one comitee, about two places where you're required by law to fill your ballot) per maybe couple thousands citizens. These places are usually in a local school for the district. During the election, they are open Friday afternoon till 8 PM and Saturday till 2 PM. We have fully tabulated results by late Saturday. We don't have to register, the verification is done through a central registry, we just have to prove our identity at the polling site.

Frankly, I think U.S. deserves a comprehensive electoral reform. Americans should demand it in a general strike.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#39

Post by 082349872349872 »

zubspace wrote: post #22
docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

There have been made some studies in Switzerland [1][2] why turnout is usually somewhere between 40 and 45%. Main reasons: * Not interested. * Not competent enough to make a decision. * Social isolation. * Frustration. * Some participate in other ways than voting. Some other interesting facts from 2015 [3]: * 30% turnout of young people between 18 and 30 years. * 67% turnout of old people between 65 and 74 years. * 5…

1971 having been due to holdouts who are so conservative that to this day they vote* by physically assembling and holding up hands. (this year postponed due to the 'rona).

Despite that, since 1971 there have been 5 female presidents from 3 different parties: Calmy-Rey, Dreifuss, Leuthard, Sommaruga, Widmer-Schlumpf (some having served more than once)

* as they have since 1403 https://www.ai.ch/politik/landsgemeinde

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#40

Post by fallingfrog »

It’s intentional, of course. Suppressing the vote of young or nonwhite people is a well established practice in America. Oftentimes voting districts are so gerrymandered that everybody knows which way the district will vote anyway so why bother? And voter registration laws make it very time consuming to prove residency for people who have to move often.
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