When Obama was elected in 2008, almost 62% of registered voters voted. That's a difference of 20%. Wow. Still, 62% is not that fantastic, but I think that it shows that, when more voters vote, Democrats get elected.
But what accounts for the consistently low voter turnout in the U.S.?
There are some interesting stats here.
Only 29% of US Population (42% of registered voters) Participated in 2010 Mid-Term Elections
Posted by Darcy Richardson at Uncovered Politics:
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 4 — According to the Associated Press, 90 million Americans — only 42% of registered voters — pulled the lever for a congressional candidate on Tuesday. That’s just a hair under 29% of the US population of 310.6 million.
“So much for the consent of the governed,” says Thomas L. Knapp of the fledgling X2012 Project. “In a typical district, the next US Representative was chosen by, at most, one out of four or five registered voters and less than one in six of his or her alleged constituents.”
“A majority of those who could have voted refused to. A supermajority either chose not to vote or weren’t allowed to vote,” says the edgy and contemplative media coordinator and senior news analyst for the Center for a Stateless Society. “Yet for the next two years, that politician will claim to ‘represent,’ and to possess legitimate authority to rule, all of them."
Original here.
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