Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutt
I just showed you historical numbers, if you consider 57% to be apathy then people have been apathetic since the turn of the LAST century - the last time voter turnout in a presidential election was 70% or better was 1900.
And it's not all apathy when people don't vote - I bet 10% or more of non-voters are people with major problems - physically disabled, serious illness, mentally ill, fucked up in some way. Then there are the dumb and the lazy, not sure I'd consider them apathetic, they are ignorant, many of them voluntarily ignorant and proud of it. Then you have the people who don't vote because they feel not voting is their political statement.
|
While I don't doubt that some of these people are disabled, sick, injured or otherwise just unable to vote at the time of the election and others are mentally handicapped, I still think Apathy is one of the leading reasons for lack of voting.
Here is a list of voter turnout in many different countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout
Countries like Australia, Austria and Italy have 90% voter turn out or higher. I'm sure they have sick, mentally ill and otherwise injured/disabled people in those countries as well.
Turnout among registered voters hovers around 70-75% with the most recent presidential election numbers I can find being 2004 when 69% of registered voters actually voted. That is higher, but still makes me wonder why someone would go to the trouble of registering to vote then not actually vote.