With the 2016 voting preliminaries in full spring, voter turnout has become a popular topic in recent news stories. Just about every time a television is turned on or a webpage is pulled up, someone, somewhere is talking about who to vote for and the turn out from the most recent preliminary. However, who to vote for is not the only issue being talked about, but also voter turnout. People everywhere are trying to urge anyone who is eighteen years or older to go out and vote. People still urge everyone to vote only for their favorite candidate and that if they do not, they are an idiot and no longer that person’s friend. This is not the correct approach. Of course who everyone votes for is important to the election, but that is solely an opinion. What ismore important is voter turnout. Voter turnout is the main determining factor in who wins the election. The better voter turnout, the more votes. The fact that every vote matters. If everyone who does not normally vote went and voted, then that could be the difference between who wins and who loses especially since the elections in the recent past years have been so close.
In the United States, the voting age is eighteen years and older, so when it is an election year, candidates will focus more on the younger population than the older population. This is because younger people will be more likely to go out and vote since it is the first time they are legally able to and they want to be able to have a say.Also, young people often have not developed their own political views yet, so candidates hold rallies anchored towards young people because they are easier to influence. However, candidates have started gearing towards the lower class as well as the young voters. They often promise those in poverty solutions to all of their problems such as morejobs, lower taxes, and health care. With candidates focusing mostly on the young and the lower class, those in the middle class, which is the largest class in the United States, often feel that their opinion does not matter.
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The fact of the matter is, everyone’s opinion matters. If everyone in the United States voted for who they wanted, then the results in every election would probably be much different. People who go out and vote now are the young, the poor, and the upper class. The middle class does not get hardly any attention from candidates even though the middle class is a majority of the United States population. Since candidates do not focus on the middle class, they do not feel important and often choose to not vote. No one tells them that they matter or makes them feel important.
Recent elections have been close by just hundreds. In Arkansas’s recent primary, the republican candidate’s difference of votes had an average of 125 across the state. 125 is asmall number, especially for an election. If 125 more people would have gone to vote then maybe Ted Cruz would have won in Arkansas instead of Donald Trump. (JenniferHelms) The difference in votes between candidates is so close in this election that in fact every single vote matters. In the 2012 election between President Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama won the popular vote by fifty-one point thirty-eight percent. Mitt Romney was just over two percent behind with a popular vote of forty-eight point sixty-one percent. (2012) That is insanely close! If everyone who could have voted would have voted in 2012, then President Obama may have been beaten my Mitt Romney.
Although voting is important to every race, it is not required. It is a right to the American citizen, but not mandatory. People chose not to vote because they feel that their vote does not matter. Others just do not have the time to go out and vote, and others just do not care. No one has to vote. It is simply a right and a choice if they have the right to vote. No one can force anyone to vote. That is part of being a free country! All American citizens have choices on all issues. Even though voting is not important or required, it is still important. If no one voted, then how would the president be elected into office? They would not. The United States would no longer be considered a democracy and would have to find another way to change presidents in office. Whether they have high up officials vote for president or the United States become a monarchy, citizens would no longer have an opinion or freedom.
Voting is important no matter what the issue is. Without voting, the United States would not be a democracy like it is today. Although candidates do not evenly focus on all ages and social groups, everyone’s vote matters. It does not matter what someone’s political preference is as long as they put their say into who is going to be in office. People feel that they do not matter and chose to not vote, but everyone matters. If everyone voted, then the turn out would probably be much different. Maybe someone else would be elected into office. Maybe there would be a larger difference in vote between candidates. No one will ever know until everyone who can will go out and vote. Voting is one important detail that makes the United States a democracy. Every citizen matters, so everyone’s vote matters. Every citizen should go out and vote at their next election. They could be the difference.
