The voter turnout in United States is only around 40-50% while most other democratic countries are around 75-85%. How come it's significantly lower in the US? Americans in the clan, why don't you or your friends vote in elections?

Pretty sure you can find this information online if you're really curious. Asking a clan with only a handful of Americans lol.

To answer your question, I haven't been of age to vote until now.

I have heard a number of explanations, the two main ones being that the elections are on Tuesdays while people are at work (don't you get time off work for it?) and that you need to register to vote.

I have heard a number of explanations, the two main ones being that the elections are on Tuesdays while people are at work (don't you get time off work for it?) and that you need to register to vote.

Both of those are correct yeah. I do know growing up that my parents voted, and that my mom was a loud to leave and vote, but she had a middle class job, working behind a desk, etc. I doubt most companies like say Mcdonalds, will let people leave to go vote. I'm not sure why it's on a Tuesday.

And yes you have to register to vote, I think it's a way of identifying that you're an u.s. citizen.

Tuesday is an odd day to take a vote but then again, in the UK, we vote on Thursdays so it's not really any better lol. Do the polling stations close early in the US or something? (say 6pm?) Most people in the UK just go to vote after they finish work or before they leave for work as I'm pretty sure they're open until 10pm

It's curious that even Canada has a 60-70% turnout - a drastically different percentage than our neighbors to the south who have such few cultural differences.

I can't speak for all Americans nor have I studied the reasons besides just basically hearing theories as to why the turnout is so low, but I'd say it's a mix of things.

Poll times close based on where you live... there's not a single nation-wide time. Polls close anywhere between 7:00pm-11:00pm (except Alaska at 1:00am). So, naturally, if peoples' polls open at 7:00am (which is the typical time they open) and close around 7:00-9:00pm, some people aren't off work yet and have been at work during the entire time that the polls have been open, so they don't get the opportunity to vote.

Yes, we do have to register to vote, but 89% of the U.S. have some sort of photo ID, such as a driver's license, and most of the time when you get your license anymore they ask you right there if you'd like to register to vote, so it's not out of the way to do so.

I think lastly, a lot of Americans have low political efficacy. People have the idea that their vote doesn't matter and that because the cost of political campaigns and finances are going up each year, they feel that the wealthy have a much greater say since they're able to heavily influence government through their spending and endorsements. The U.S. has a major problem with money in politics and there are a lot of talks about campaign finance reform but it's hard to get thing started since those who wouldn't benefit from the reform would be those already in office trying to maintain their positions.

Ignorance, low efficacy, and inconvenience are what I would say are the biggest factors. Those as well as how evil politics has become and how many people don't describe voting as choosing the better candidate, but rather as choosing the lesser of two evils. People may just not want to be a part of it.

I was able to vote in the last US election but didn't bc I forgot and don't care.

Idk if you're aware but the election system in the US is weird. Each state is worth an amount of "points" relative to population so some are more valuable. Each state has representatives (current/former federal officials from that state that were elected at some point) that vote for a candidate and the candidate with the most votes gets all of the states points. They guy with the most points becomes president.
Some states split the points relative to the amount of votes. Most don't split tho.

So I guess you can say that our votes dont rlly count lol. Our founding fathers did this because in the 1700s we were "uninformed" or something

The Electoral College system is actually very useful. Most people think that it's somewhat odd or even ridiculous since we do still keep track of the popular vote. Some were even outraged in the instance of George Bush vs. Al Gore in the 2000 election where Bush got more electoral votes but Al Gore received more votes as a whole. This is an extremely rare occurrence. The reason the electoral vote, as opposed to the more "fair" belief that the popular vote should be what an election is based on, is the better choice is simply because of where people live and how the candidates would treat their constituents.

If every election was based merely on popular vote, the candidates would travel to New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, etc. They would focus only on the interests of big cities and densely populated areas in order to receive their votes and to continue to do so. Anyone living in rural, lowly populated areas in turn would have no say in an election and their interests and values would be pushed aside since the candidates would only want to cater to those in the big cities where the majority of people live.

I think part of the problem is the U.S. is so big.  There are a lot of elections from local, to state, to federal to vote in - it takes work to be informed on all the issues and all the candidates.  I actually vote in all the elections (although I will admit to sometimes skipping ballot lines if I don't feel like I have enough information on hospital boards, judges...).  There is also a perception that your vote doesn't count.  I live in California and a lot of times federal elections are called way before our polls close.  But I am an eternal optimist and believe in making the world a better place so I vote anyway.  There have been elections in the U.S. where a small number of votes has made a difference or where the final results have differed from what they thought it would be. 

I disagree about the electoral college.  In all states except Maine and Nebraska (which divide the vote between congressional districts and the popular vote) - it is winner take all but the elector doesn't actually legally have to vote that way (even though most of them do).  There are many proposed vote reforms and a lot of them would represent voters regionally better than the electoral college does.

Voter registration and poll locations and times are not consistent across the U.S.  http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/voter-registration-deadlines-poll-hours.html list poll hours some states close at 6pm but the majority are open later (and most open early) so you can usually vote around work)  Illinois had a voting holiday - so that people could go to the polls - it turned out it had no impact on the number of voters.  Some states have many polling locations others are hard to get to.  Minorities and lower income people have worse voter statistics.  There are definitely issues in the U.S. with voter id laws and concerns about disenfranchising minority and low-income voters.

Canada is not an entirely fair comparison - in 2015 Canada had a population of 35,749,600 people while America has a population of 320,090,857 people which is about 9 times as many.  It does make U.S. elections more difficult.

http://www.eac.gov/assets/1/workflow_staging/Page/54.PDF - things the U.S. has tried (without changing the overall methodology of voting) to increase voter turnout.

i really should vote. maybe its the thought that my singular vote really wouldnt matter? or that the polls are rigged for whoever they (government) wants in office. call me crazy.

There's a bunch of reasons. Having a two party system and an electoral college makes voting rather worthless.

80-90% of the people vote democrat or republican (the two parties) every election regardless of who is running. And as far as presidential voting goes, it's by states won, not popular vote. States, like Maryland (where I'm from), vote democrat by an overwhelming majority every election making it pointless to vote republican. There are a handful of swing states that decide elections and those are the only states really worth voting if  you live there.

Also Americans have an issue where they're extremely uninformed yet think they are extremely informed. Right now it's looking like we're going to have a president elected through effective use of memes.

There's a bunch of reasons. Having a two party system and an electoral college makes voting rather worthless.

80-90% of the people vote democrat or republican (the two parties) every election regardless of who is running. And as far as presidential voting goes, it's by states won, not popular vote. States, like Maryland (where I'm from), vote democrat by an overwhelming majority every election making it pointless to vote republican. There are a handful of swing states that decide elections and those are the only states really worth voting if  you live there.

Also Americans have an issue where they're extremely uninformed yet think they are extremely informed. Right now it's looking like we're going to have a president elected through effective use of memes.

How happy/or unhappy have you been with Obama's reign?

Quote from: Joe mamma27 on February 14, 2016, 19:47:08

There's a bunch of reasons. Having a two party system and an electoral college makes voting rather worthless.

80-90% of the people vote democrat or republican (the two parties) every election regardless of who is running. And as far as presidential voting goes, it's by states won, not popular vote. States, like Maryland (where I'm from), vote democrat by an overwhelming majority every election making it pointless to vote republican. There are a handful of swing states that decide elections and those are the only states really worth voting if  you live there.

Also Americans have an issue where they're extremely uninformed yet think they are extremely informed. Right now it's looking like we're going to have a president elected through effective use of memes.

How happy/or unhappy have you been with Obama's reign?

Woah, another person from Maryland. It's pretty accurate although Maryland has a Republican Governer at the moment.

Personally I'm pretty happy with Obama's presidency. My healthcare is a bit worse, but I'm happy that people can actually get it now. I had a lot of friend's families who couldn't because of bs things like their grandparents having cancer. I also enjoy the fact that gay marriage was legalized, and think it's a great step in the right direction.

Also, please no hating on memes.