Arthur J. DiLeo
Mrs. Larsen
Cause & Effect Essay
7 March 2017
The Impact of Voter Apathy & Uneducated Political Discussion
As Americans, don’t you expect for your voice to be heard? Your views to be respected? For your votes to truly count? All Americans have different views on politics, but as Americans, we all share a desire for a fair and representative system for electing all local, state and national leaders; but is this really the case? Too often in today’s politics, voter apathy is incredibly apparent. Voter apathy, at its most basic definition, can be defined as the lack of caring in voters. Typically, this results in what is also seen a lot of today: uneducated voters. Low turnout elections and increased polarization is preventing our American democracy from living up to its expectations; expectations set from our founding fathers in the late 1700s. During a period of mostly imperialism and colonialism, the Constitution offered a different view of government, not appointed by a religion or a monarchy, but by them people themselves. A large cause of this lack of education in politics can be linked to the increasing usage of social media. More than ever, voters have distaste for politics and the candidates presented in front of them. They chose to vote for the lesser of two evils, rather than the candidate that represents their beliefs. The 2016 presidential election made this mindset apparent; many did not care, yet cast uneducated votes. Beneath that, less-and-less people care about local elections, which is odd, because those political decisions are typically the ones that are more likely to directly affect them. Regardless, the rise of voter apathy is directly correlated with the increase of uneducated voters today.
Recent studies are showing that the rise of internet usage is now resulting in a lower voter turnout. In late 2014, the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, a nonpartisan research group. With the increase of internet usage, voters are now being swarmed with loads of information, usually untrue and irrelevant to real political matters. As often seen on social media, users congregate the many platforms with information that is far more opinion based rather than fact based, which is the heart of politics, but social media has taken it to a new extreme. People used to get the majority of their political news from news stations and word-of-mouth, whereas now that’s just not true. Studies show that upwards of 66% of Facebook users go onto Facebook to get their daily news, according to Pew (Niemanlab.) This number is only going to keep growing, as it has increased nearly 20% in just three years. The major concern about the influx of voters receiving their news from Facebook is that a lot of the news they are receiving is completely false. The fact of the matter is that all these fake news articles are in it just for the money. As long as they get clicks on their news, they have done their job. What this leads to though, is a 55-year old man believing the President’s Office just got raided by a storm of chimpanzees.
With the rise of the lower voter turnout, we are now running into what is known as voter apathy. Voter apathy technically means the lack of caring in voters, thought that’s not exactly what America sees today. As seen from the most current 2016 presidential election, people do care. The problem comes about, though, when it comes to actual voters who care. As aforementioned , the rise of social media news is causing a lot of people to get fake news. People react to this fake news quickly, but what not many tend to think about, is that these people reacting to this news may very well not be registered voters. Some may be under aged, and some may be too lazy to register. When it comes to actual voters though, studies are showing that people are getting tired of seeing the same stories over-and-over again, still most of them being pure bogus. It’s hard to care about politics when readers cannot trust a news source and more often than not are led to fake news. People on the edge of voting may be discouraged and annoyed at all this coverage. Throughout the past twenty years or so, the country has averaged about 59% of eligible voters voting during the general election (CNN.) As seen in the most recent presidential election though, we see a drop of nearly 10% from the 2008 election, with 55.4% of registered voters showing up to the election (CNN.) This number is the lowest turnout in voters since the 1996 election.
There is no single reason that voter turnout is decreasing in the U.S. In fact, Pew Research Center ranked the U.S. at 31st out of 35 countries for turnout based on voting age populace (PBS.) While many feel social media is a large part of this lack of voting, there is much more to voter apathy than just social media. Often times, people feel that the voting process is becoming too difficult; especially when trying to work around their busy schedule. With a short period of time to go in and cast a ballot, the hassle of needing to verify who you are before you’re allowed to cast that ballot, and just the mass chaos that goes along with it, people are caring less and less about going out to actually vote. On top of that, many people feel their votes don’t make a difference. America is a democracy at heart, but it’s turning into a country where the electoral college matters more than the votes of the citizens. This election period against Hillary and Trump was a prime example, where Hillary won the general election, but still lost the race. Cases like this make people feel like their vote is worthless.
As it turns out, there is a strong correlation between voter turnout and the amount of uneducated voters there are. It’s quite simple actually: as the number of uneducated voters rises, the lower the voter turnout typically is. To recap, the news on social media has taken over people’s timelines, newsfeeds, and other news outlets. With such a high number of people using Facebook and other social media sites as their main news source, we then run into the problem of fake news. This fake news is leaving plenty of people completely uninformed as to what is really going on during the election. This lack of information, combined with other factors such as the hassle of the election itself, leads people to care less about going out and voting. People are so tired of seeing it all in their timeline, and they get enough of politics through their social media that that don’t care enough to go out and vote.
Voter apathy is rising in the U.S., and many are trying to figure out ways to increase voter turnout. One of the problems these people need to start focusing on though is the mass amounts of fake news people are seeing on their Facebook. Until the problem of uneducated voters is solved, America will continue to see a rise in voter apathy. It is time to level the playing field for all voters to have a tangible voice in American democracy. The organization, FairVote, is focused to meet the political challenges of our time. They are currently working towards many goals, which also include solutions to voter apathy and many other prevalent issues we face as a democracy. You can donate on their website, fairvote.org, or even download their Ranked Choice Voting Activist Toolkit, which provides supporters with information to start a movement.
America is a democracy at heart; every vote matters, every voice is heard, despite the looming presence of fake news and lies running the press. Before choosing to elect the future leader of the free world, voters must first educate themselves on the issues at hand and the matters in their heart. Education is one of the core values in America, it does not stop past college education. Educate yourself. Learn more, Read more. Discover the truth and destroy voter apathy.