Blog Post 1.4 - "Why People Don't Vote"

1. 58.6% of Americans voted in the 2012 election, but 84% of registered voters cast a ballot.
2. A lot of times, people just forget to register until after the deadline has passed; other times, people cannot register at all because of certain registration requirements or prohibitions on people like felons. 
3. Many people say they either are not interested in voting, disliked the candidates, or did not care about voting at all. They simply do not think their vote matters. 
4. Families shape how people will view voting in the future. Affluent families tend to instill an idea that voting is expected - a responsibility - and that it can make a difference. Other people often instead get the sense that politics is dirty and that they do not matter.
5. The sheer amount of elections can fatigue voters and make it easy to slip into a habit of not voting at all. 
6. Parties tend to focus on bringing out the vote in populations that will probably support their party, and they do not focus on bringing out the vote in populations that may vote unpredictably. 
7. Oregon is allowing voting by mail to increase voter turnout. 
8. Elections that are like festivals would probably increase voter turnout and cement cultural norms around voting. 
9. Mandatory voting laws suggest to the people that voting is expected, which is normally enough without resorting to harsh punishments.