Alessandro van den Brink | Get to the polls

Small Talk | Why we can do more to make sure our politics accurately represent us

By Alessandro van den Brink 11/01/15 5:39pm

At the Democratic debate several weeks ago, Hillary Clinton told her supporters that it was essential that every person vote. Clinton claimed that when voter turnout is high, Democrats have an edge over Republicans. While there are studies that both affirm and deny Clinton’s point, she is definitely correct in saying that more people should vote, although her reasoning is biased. More people should hit the polls come Election Day not because a certain political party needs your support, but simply because as a republic, our politicians should represent our values, not just those of a small portion of voters who have made the effort to vote.

Last year, the voter turnout for congressional midterms was a measly 36 percent of eligible voters. That’s the lowest voter turnout since 1942, but some may claim that’s simply due to the fact that this was a congressional vote as opposed to a presidential one, which has historically always garnered a larger voting percentage. But even if we take into account the statistics from the 2012 presidential election, the United States managed just 53.6 percent of the voting population, which is the fourth lowest among OECD countries. The bright side is that the U.S. had the seventh highest turnout among registered voters with 84.3 percent. This means that those who are active enough to register are extremely likely to follow through and vote, but we still have to do a better job with registering.

The two OECD countries with the highest voter turnout, Belgium and Turkey, have mandatory voting laws. In the U.S., however, registering is an individual responsibility dependent on each eligible voter. Because of this, there are three main courses of action that we can take as a country to increase voter turnout: introduce compulsory voting legislation, drastically make it easier to register to vote or simply try to instill a passion about politics.

Although some may argue that compulsory voting would be good for America, there is no federal holiday for Election Day, so requiring all 227 million voting-eligible people to vote while still finding time to work or manage other responsibilities seems too complicated to sort out. The problem doesn’t seem to be in voting registration either, because the process has become relatively painless. Many registration forms are available online and, in some states, same-day registration is acceptable on election day.

Therefore the main culprit seems to be our own disinterest in politics. It’s certainly true that politics has been a huge part of our culture; just look at the massive success of TV shows like House of Cards, Scandal and Homeland or the popularity of the Democratic debate, which had a reported 15.3 million viewers, a record audience for a televised Democratic debate. Nevertheless, when analyzing why eligible voters didn’t hit the polls in 2014, 28 percent said they were too busy, 16 percent said they were not interested and 8 percent forgot to vote, according to the Census Bureau. These reasons seem more like excuses and could relatively be translated into potential votes if those voters were more interested in politics, or simply recognized the massive part it plays in our lives.

Even if one chocks those numbers up to the fact that last year was only a congressional election cycle rather than a presidential one, picking our local representatives can actually have more of an effect on us as individuals than picking a president. Therefore, if you wish to see change in your taxes, your health care or more, the main way you can take a part in enacting that change is through voting for the leaders that you think best represent your views.

It’s time that we college students do our fair share as well. While political voices on campus are notoriously strong, the difference between the share of the eligible population and voting population for the 18 to 34 age range has decreased from -11.6 to -13.2 percent. This means over time, young adults have gotten even worse at voting. The amount of Penn students voting decreased from approximately 1,460 voters in 2010 to 1,060 in 2014, proving we still have some work to do. If we start actively participating in politics now, we can ensure our politics properly represent us now and for generations to come.

ALESSANDRO VAN DEN BRINK is a College sophomore from New York, studying economics. His email address is alevan@sas.upenn.edu. “Small Talk” usually appears online every other Saturday.

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