Voter Efficacy

Hey everybody, I’m doing a paper on voter efficacy, basically “Do Americans still think their vote counts?” Instead of getting the majority of my information from a bunch of half assed studies scattered around on the internet, I’m interested in asking people directly.

Anybody here who is a citizen of the United States, post with a reply including(optional) your age, race, party loyalty, and your reason(s) for believeing your vote counts or why it doesn’t. This isn’t meant to start bashing anybody, I’m just collecting opinions. Thanks in advance to all who are willing to share their opinions, everybody’s will be respected.

~ Chris

I tend to believe in the system. When you’re counting anything in huge numbers, I’m sure there are some mistakes made, but I think they generally equal out over the long run.

Hopefully, the counts will get cleaner as we get better at using these digital whatsamajiggers. Then again, sore losers are always going to think they got cheated regardless, so I’m not sure if things will get better or worse from here on out.

As for details, I’m 30. My votes trend republican with a few throw-aways to the libertarians, and democrats when they are doing a good job.

Thank you for the reply Cunnivore, it’s funny how nobody stops running their mouth when it comes to bashing something but when you kindly ask for an opinion nobody gives a rat’s ass. I myself tend to still have some hope in the system, although I think we can make a lot of changes, especially starting with the voter turnout.

On average less than or about half of each racial bloc registers to vote, then only about a half to three quarters of the registered voters actually turn out at the polls. It’s trends like these which lead me to assume that many people are starting to not care anymore. Politicians aren’t meeting the demands of the youth because voters between 18-25 have the lowest turnout of any group, thus why the hell would the politicians focus on their desires?

I’d love to see more people of all kinds registering and taking action, allowing us to create more realist politics instead of bullshit.

I’m with you. Voter turnout is really atrocious. The most simple answer is probably that politics is boring. The fact that it is important is irrelevant if people aren’t paying attention.

I think that it might be easier to get more people voting if we did it more often, and made it a regular part of our life instead of something we do once every two or four years. If it was routine, like if we had drive through voting booths or something, it might help get more people involved.

But then again, if people don’t think it really matters, then the numbers will stay low, and realistically politicians probably prefer it that way. The fewer people are paying attention to them, the fewer people they have to keep happy.

I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18. I think my vote counts and take it seriously. Have always voted Republican in the national elections. Sometimes Democrat in a few local elections but rarely.

Most of my male friends vote. Few of my female friends vote or care about politics at all. That’s the big miss in voter turnout in my opinion.

[quote]hedo wrote:
I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18. I think my vote counts and take it seriously. Have always voted Republican in the national elections. Sometimes Democrat in a few local elections but rarely.

Most of my male friends vote. Few of my female friends vote or care about politics at all. That’s the big miss in voter turnout in my opinion.[/quote]

Funny because females now have a higher turnout than men (56%-53%), although there’s not a huge gap. I agree with you though, almost every time I try to talk politics with a woman they don’t have much to say at all. Latinos’ population is growing exponentially, as well as their activism and voting turnout. A lot of people tend to feel let down because of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, many felt this as a discredit to the legitimacy of elections (a fair and publicy accepted victory in election).

In a recent poll only 1/6 people claimed they voted for Bush, all that makes people wonder what the hell is going on with elections. I think the problem isn’t so much the system, but the voting in general, people need to get to the polls! There are other nations in which it’s the law to vote, and others simply have 95% turnouts! We’re hovering between 50%-60% I believe, it’s time we get that number up!

[quote]MisterAmazing wrote:
hedo wrote:
I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18. I think my vote counts and take it seriously. Have always voted Republican in the national elections. Sometimes Democrat in a few local elections but rarely.

Most of my male friends vote. Few of my female friends vote or care about politics at all. That’s the big miss in voter turnout in my opinion.

Funny because females now have a higher turnout than men (56%-53%), although there’s not a huge gap. I agree with you though, almost every time I try to talk politics with a woman they don’t have much to say at all. Latinos’ population is growing exponentially, as well as their activism and voting turnout. A lot of people tend to feel let down because of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, many felt this as a discredit to the legitimacy of elections (a fair and publicy accepted victory in election).

In a recent poll only 1/6 people claimed they voted for Bush, all that makes people wonder what the hell is going on with elections. I think the problem isn’t so much the system, but the voting in general, people need to get to the polls! There are other nations in which it’s the law to vote, and others simply have 95% turnouts! We’re hovering between 50%-60% I believe, it’s time we get that number up![/quote]

Yeah I’ve heard statistics like that for female voting percentages. Most of my female friends are educated bright people and I don’t think any of them vote.