Timeline for Why is participation rate for US presidential elections so low?
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20 events
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| Jan 2, 2017 at 18:35 | answer | added | martymarty | timeline score: -5 | |
| Nov 14, 2016 at 21:58 | comment | added | gerrit | @WS2 Not sure why you are addressing those questions to me! In The Netherlands I think they're open from 7:00 to 21:00 and there are very many of them. No queues. Not either as far as I've seen in Germany, Sweden, or the UK. | |
| Nov 14, 2016 at 21:03 | comment | added | WS2 | @gerrit Nonetheless in Britain, which also has a first past the post system, turnout levels are significantly higher than in the US. At the 2015 General Election it was 66% overall, though this it considerably less than it used to be. Prior to 1992 it was always in the upper 70s sometimes into the 80 per cents. One thing I did notice this time is that US polling stations close at 7.00pm. In Britain they are open from 7.00am to 10.00pm. Results are declared through the night, the fastest constituency in 2015 having been Sunderland at 10.48pm. Why do they close so early in the US? | |
| Nov 14, 2016 at 20:13 | history | edited | Brythan |
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| Nov 14, 2016 at 13:40 | history | edited | Philipp♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
clarified what kind of participation you are talking about
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| Nov 3, 2016 at 6:50 | answer | added | Readin | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 1, 2016 at 18:07 | comment | added | gerrit | USA has a first-past-the-post system exacerbated by gerrymandering. If you're a leftie in rural Kansas or a conservative in Washington DC, your vote is very unlikely to make a difference. The Netherlands has a proportional representation system with a 0.67% threshold, such that even for small minorities, such as animal rights parties or the christian right, voting actually matters. I believe that is the most important factor explaining the difference. | |
| Oct 31, 2016 at 6:41 | comment | added | Funzies | The municipalities do. They send out a voting pas (about a month before the election) to everybody that is registered within the municipality. They also count the votes. It is still done manually to prevent electronic fraud. | |
| Oct 31, 2016 at 6:35 | answer | added | react_or_angluar | timeline score: -5 | |
| Oct 27, 2016 at 15:29 | comment | added | indigochild | Who organizes and staffs elections in the Netherlands? | |
| Oct 27, 2016 at 1:19 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackPolitics/status/791449246998429697 | ||
| Oct 26, 2016 at 22:23 | history | edited | Brythan |
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| Oct 26, 2016 at 21:39 | comment | added | Bobson | @abelenky - And in other states, it never gets to be more than a minute or three. Or they use mail-in only, so there are no lines at all. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 21:14 | comment | added | abelenky | "waiting lines for voting can be long, such that people have to wait up to an hour." LOL... thats funny. In some states, it is not unusual for voting lines to be 5 to 8 hours long! | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 17:31 | comment | added | user9389 | My understanding is that much of campaigning in the US is already about non-voters, either trying to get 'your' non-voters to vote, or to a lesser extent turn 'their' voters into non-voters. the center isn't as juicy as your base. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 16:54 | comment | added | hownowbrowncow | @blip I agree, flawed. I'd wager that an apathetic population is a much larger reason for non-participation. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 16:32 | comment | added | user1530 | The question is a bit flawed in that it assumes the primary issue is a lack of voting locations--which isn't necessarily true. As for the second part, yes, of course, if half the people don't normally vote, they could certainly drastically change an election if they suddenly did decide to vote. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 16:31 | comment | added | Philipp♦ | It might be relevant to note that voter turnout varies a lot from state to state. It's also generally higher for presidential elections than for midterm elections. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 16:08 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 26, 2016 at 17:25 | |||||
| Oct 26, 2016 at 16:07 | history | asked | Funzies | CC BY-SA 3.0 |