A very disturbing trend that has emerged recently in our political system is the steady decline in voter turnout. In a country that values democracy as deeply as the American people, it is hard to believe that we are experiencing almost a two to three percent drop in voter turnout every election. When elections such as these affect many aspects of your social political and economical situation and not simply which candidate is elected to office, one must consider what factors would cause almost half of the population in the United States to fail to vote on election day. The solution to this problem will require researching many different aspects of the voting process to get a better understanding of who fails to vote and what reasons cause them not to vote.
After the election of 1960 a discouraging trend of low voter turnout appeared in our political system. In the presidential election of 1960 there was a 63.1% turnout of the voting age population. In the years following this election, we have seen an average decrease of (calculate exact amount) every year in voter turnout. This trend continued through our presidential election of 2000 where there was only a 51.3% turnout which actually was an increase from the 49.1% of the previous election. This trend is not only present in our presidential elections but also in many other national and statewide elections. For example, in the congressional election of 1962 there was a 47.3% turnout and then in 2000 there was only a 36.4% turnout. It seems that the United States is not alone in this trend because many other democracies across the world are also experiencing similar declines. Unfortunately, the United States is second to last in voter turnout among democratic nations. The only country with a lower turnout is Switzerland with a 34.9% voter turnout rate. It is not likely that a generic solution will be found that can be used across the world but looking at other countries may help to understand why we are experiencing this steady decline.