Voter Turnout

Introduction

A voter turnout is a percentage of the voters that are qualified to vote through the ballot in an election. The eligible voters for every country are different depending on t heir ages. Since 1960, there has been a reduction in the trend of the voter turnout in most, constitute democracies. However, the reason for low turnout is due to the disillusion, contentment or indifference. There are many factors that affect the turnout. A contribution by the voter turnout has an impact on a wide range of cultural, demographic, technological, economic and institutional factors. However, government has put numerous attempts for the growth of the turnout and promotes voting (www.idea.int).

It has been consider as the most and basic form in order to participate in political, representative democracy. Turnout means two very closely related phenomena: The most common form of political participation, which is manifested in the election process. The level of participation in a particular election (voter turnout). To calculate the participation of some elections usually use the following formula: P = Number of vote's number of voters X 100. The number of voters can refer both to the number of registered voters and the number of people of voting age.

Discussion

After decades of increase, there has been a downward trend in the percentage of participation in democracies more consolidadadas from the 1960's. In general, low turnout may be due to disenchantment, apathy or satisfaction. It is often considered that the low turnout is not desirable, and there has been much debate about the factors affecting participation and how to increase it. Despite the significant amount of research on the issue, scholars are divided as to the reasons for the decline. Its cause has been attributed to a wide range of factors economic, demographic, cultural, technological, and institutional.

Different countries show different levels of electoral participation. For example, in the United States, approximately 70% of the population qualified register to vote, which may be an important factor in explaining the low turnout in recent decades has barely reached 50% in presidential elections. However, in 2004, participation in the presidential election reached 56.70% of adult U.S. citizens. In Australia, where voting is mandatory, and in Malta, participation reaches 95%. It is believed that these differences are due to a combination of cultural and institutional factors.

Among the long-established democracies where voting is compulsory, are Australia, Belgium and Luxembourg. Other countries where democracy is well ...