Abstract

In todays society, especially with this years presidential election, not voting has become
a big issue for Americans. Because El Paso is a borderland city near Mexico, the Mexican
heritage is very inhabited, therefore, choosing a fitting presidential candidate is very confusing.
The decision on choosing a better presidential candidate has baffled the El Pasoan community,
therefore leads to many arguments and not voting. Voting is every American citizens right and
privilege; it should be taken advantage of in order for peoples voice to be heard and considered.
Statistics show that the voting average has declined dramatically since the 1960s. A possible
solution would be to provide more incentives for the people when it comes to the actual voting
process.

Manning, Steven. "Why Americans don't vote." Scholastic Update 7 Oct. 1988: 24+. Academic
OneFile. Web. 7 Oct. 2016.
According to Steven Manning on his scholarly article, Why Americans Dont Vote, he
states that many statistics show that approximately only half of American citizens, that are
eligible to vote, do not vote. The number of voters are also dramatically decreasing every 4
years. Manning also came to a couple of conclusions as to the reasons why people are not voting
when it comes to their new national leader. One reason would be that many citizens do not
believe that their vote will make a difference. Another reason would be that both political parties
are not the right fit for the job. Lastly, it has been concluded that a majority of citizens think that
it is too much of a hassle to go down to the local voting poll and wait in line to put in a ballot.
Ruy A. Teixeira. Why Americans Don't Vote: Turnout Decline in the United States, 1960-1984.
Greenwood Publishing Group. 1987. Web. Oct 9, 2016. (https://books.google.com/books)
According to Teixeira, the low rates of casted ballots actually stated in the early Republic.
Although some reasons for not voting might have been a little more legitimate, others still relate
to todays society. For many Americans, politics is just not a main concern for people to think
about. Since citizens are bored with the thought of politics, they are uneducated about their
presidential candidates. Then again leading up to not knowing which candidate is the best fit for
the job which causes people not to vote. Because casting in a vote on Election Day is an
individual responsibility and is not mandatory, people sometimes do not feel the need to actually
go down to the polls and vote.
Piven, Frances Fox and Cloward, Richard A. Why Americans Still Don't Vote: And why
Politicians Want it that Way. Oct 9, 2016
Piven and Cloward have studied varies reasons has to why many Americans still continue
to not vote. They discovered that the reasons only multiply within every election year. Finally,
the two authors categorized the variety of reasons into three camps. The first two consist of
political intuitions and mostly the disagreements of both candidates. The third camp consists of
the uneducated citizens. When Americans are uneducated in politics, they are discouraged to go
to the voting polls because they feel as if their vote does not matter.

Bauerlein, Mark. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans
and Jeopardizes our Future. New York: Jeremy Tarcher, 2008. Web. Oct 9, 2016
Bauerleins article on The Dumbest Generation specifies that it does not intend to
offend anyone, but only to give reason why this generation has deferred from previous
generations. He has concluded that this generation is very uneducated and has very little
knowledge on todays world. Because people now a days have very little knowledge, the voting
has decreased very rapidly every election year. Todays generation also relies a big part of their
knowledge on the internet, especially social media. Therefore, he calls this The Dumbest
Generation.
Fulwood III, Sam. Race and Beyond: Why Young, Minority, and Low-Income Citizens Dont
Vote. November 6, 2014: Center for American Express. Web. Oct 9, 2016
Fulwood has come to a different approach as to why a large number of Americans do not
vote. She found that 34 percent of young Americans do not vote. Most voters have come to be
around the ages of 54 and older. Another reason she found why some dont vote are because their
race and ethnicity are very different from the presidential candidates. An unusual reason would
be that their incomes are lower than the average citizen, therefore discouraging them to vote as
well. And lastly, Fulwood concluded, like the other scholarly articles, many voters are very
uneducated about politics and do not see a reason to vote.