It’s election year and the candidates have not failed to dominate the news. People are still trying to figure out who to vote for or if they should vote at all. I know plenty of people who say they would not vote for any of the candidates they have seen. Many people feel as though it won’t make a difference if they vote. Some are just too lazy to register, so even though we see Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton everywhere and the election is a common conversation topic among many, this election is “probably going to have the lowest-turnout election [nationally] since 1942” according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist who specializes in voter turnout.
In the past two elections large groups of people were passionate about one or two candidates. When Obama ran black women had a larger voter turnout than any other group. 98 percent of the black women who voted, voted for Obama. It is probable that voter turnout for black women is going to drop. Women are not all gravitating toward Hillary as she hoped, and many of the young adults seem to be interested in Bernie Sanders who would decrease adult democratic voter turnout dramatically if chosen in the primaries. Overall there is no candidate who seems to be dramatically raising the voter turnout for a group like Obama did in the past two elections. We will have to see what happens in the general elections when more people start getting behind a candidate.
Questions:
1. What do you think could bring voter turnout up?
2. How do you think voter turnout is going to be this election?
