Pol 411 Final

Presidential Elections

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POL 411

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date

When you live in a country like the United States and have an American democracy, you have the right to vote. Voting is an important right that Americans have. Voting rights are determined by federal and state laws that allow all United States citizens over the age of eighteen the right to vote. Voter turnout is very important because the more American citizens that show up to vote will allow a more accurate result. Citizens vote for people to represent them and if more people vote, then hopefully the correct person will get elected to represent “the people”. This paper will analyze and compare voter turnout for the 1988, 1996, and 2004 Presidential elections while assessing the voter behavior and why different issues affected voter turnout.

In 1988, the Presidential Election was between George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle. George H. W. Bush won the election by a landslide. He won with 426 electoral votes and Dan Quayle only received 111 electoral votes. The “voter turnout in 1988 was 50.1%, low even by American presidential election standards” (Herron, 1988). As Michael Herron stated, the voter turnout level was lower than normal election turnouts. The voter turnout has not been as low as it was in 1988 since 1932. According to Herron, the low voter turnout is due to two explanations. “The first explanation focuses on socioeconomic factors and the relation between socioeconomic status and voting propensity” (Herron, 1988).

The second explanation for low voter turnout focuses on “the possibility that pre-election information such as opinion poll results may depress turnout if such information indicates that an upcoming election is going to be lopsided” (Herron, 1988). Herron explains that there are sociological factors that may have influenced the turnout of the presidential election of 1988. He describes how Democratic preferences vote less than Republicans. This explanation is...