With a presidential election coming up, it’s important to note that the vast majority of Americans (91%) believe that all U.S. citizens should have the right to vote.
But since only about half of Americans of voting age actually take advantage of this right during a presidential election, and significantly less (only about one-third) do so during a national mid-term election, perhaps we want to take a look at whether making some changes to our voting system would strengthen or weaken our country as a whole.
- While more than 9 in 10 Americans say they believe everyone should have the right to vote, many Americans feel that our country would be better off if we placed some boundaries on this right such as requiring adults to show ID or the creation of an English language requirement to vote.
- That said, in order to encourage higher voter turn-out, a small pocket of Americans believe we either need to make voting mandatory for all citizens or make voting more enticing by providing monetary incentives. And it’s true, I would absolutely vote if someone bought me a new car or even a new case for my iPhone.
- And some of us, a notable about 1 in 7, especially in the South and West believe the whole system is broken and we just need to allow separate nation states to develop within the United States and vote within our respective “blue” or “red” universe.
I struggle with how many of these ideas could really be implemented but as a survey researcher, I luckily get to convey the opinions without necessarily having the solution.
Leave a Reply