Justin Brown
Participation in Politics
The easiest and most used form of political participation is voting whether it be local,
state, or national elections. Although voting is the easiest form of political participation only
about half of the U.S. voting age population actually votes. Most people who didn’t participate in
politics usually say it’s usually because they can’t, don’t want to, or because nobody asked them
to. In this essay I will be explaining voting from the perspective of those who didn’t participate
in politics and their various reasons, also I will be discussing the different demographics of
voters to show who is more likely to vote, and finally discussing different tactics candidates use
to try and mobilize voters and which ones are more effective than others.
Many people that didn’t participate in politics usually in voting have their various
reasons. A few of the most common reasons people give when asked why they didn’t participate
are because they can’t, they don’t want to, and they weren’t asked to participate. A survey was
done in 2008 by the U.S Census Bureau and found multiple reasons why people do not vote.
Some of the topping reasons that were found in the survey were, “…not voting for lack of
interest (13%), or a dislike of the candidates (13%)” (U.S Census Bureau 2008). The survey
collected information on people around the United States concerning the Presidential election.
The people who answered lack of interest in political participation could be that they do not feel
that there voice could affect the majority in a big election. The difference between voting in a
city election and a national election is about 1/10-100 thousand as opposed to 1/230 million.
These numbers could make many people feel the sense that their vote would not impact the
political participation, thus not being worth their time to participate. The 13% of people who
answered the survey disliked the candidates, which could mean that they do not feel that none of
the candidates represent their views. Though this survey was over the presidential election, it
could also be used to why people do not vote for their representatives in the House. The House of
Representatives has frozen their number to 435, despite the increasing population in the United
States. This could lead to problems when one person is trying to represent their district that could
be hundreds of thousands of people. The U.S Census Bureau survey concluded a few other
reasons of why people did not participate in politics, “Many people reported disabilities (15%),
especially among older registered voters, or others were to busy or had conflicting schedules
(17%)” (U.S Census Bureau 2008). About a third of the survey said that they had a illness or
disability or were to busy to make it to participate. Since Election Day is always held on a
Tuesday of November, it does make sense that people do have work, or could be to busy. A big
portion of registered voters is of the older population, which does make sense that some of them
