Voting
By any measure, America's youngest adult generation -- Generation X-- are the least politically active of any generation. Statistic after statistic tell the story of a generation that turns out to vote less frequently than others; the numbers also show that young adults are voting less than they once had. One would think that after all the struggles that were waged in this nation of ours for equal voting opportunities, every eligible citizen would head out to the polls. This is certainly not the case. United States is a nation built upon the fundamental principle of democracy, or rule by the people. Why then, do we in this country take voting for granted? Why do we not realize that voting is the most direct way that we have in participating in politics? The U. S. continues to be at the bottom of the ranks when it comes to voter turnout of the voting-age population. In fact, only 52.6 percent of the voting age population heads out to the polls. However, the problem does not lie in the low turnout, it is that only two-thirds of the voting-age population is registered to vote. Though it is probably too late to change the minds of the elder and middle-aged citizens about registering to vote, it is still poss
" The political information we obtain comes more because it is directed at us then because we seek out information. For those Americans who are comfortable with the current voting rate at 52. Registration in the United Sates is a very lengthy process that requires time, something a lot of people in this fast paced nation do not have. First let us look at why it is that so many people are not registered to vote. When the motor-voter bill was presented in 1993 "49 million voting-age people who were not registered to vote had driver's licenses or other state identification cards. Whether people like it or not Generation X is going to eventually be the generation running this country, if they are not educated and hence stop voting, democracy in America as we know it will come to an end. Perhaps then Neglection 2000 can turn into Election 2004. Census Bureau, in the 1996 presidential general election Generation X represented 33 percent of the voting age population, but accounted for only 24 percent of voters, making them the only generation to under-represent its voting-age population in the election. Once these people are not going to vote, their children are going to take example from their parents and not make it out to the polls. " (46) In other words, since the gathering of political information today is hardly an active process, the notion that Gen Xers are somehow lazy consumers of political information while older generations are conscientious becomes suspect. In just two months, 630,000 new voters signed up in twenty seven states. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Wilson, James and DiIulio, John American Government Institutions and Policies.
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Acceptance Essays
