Political Apathy in America (31 July 2023)

When American citizens turn 18, whether they want to or not, a few things change; they’re legal adults, men must register with selective service, and people can waste their money with hope on lottery tickets. Arguably the largest component of turning 18 however is the right to vote; the right to participate in American politics, engaging in the democratic system upon which our nation was built. There’s widespread pro-voting sentiment, encouraging those who turn 18 to vote; but why is encouragement necessary? Of my close circle of five friends, four of us, who are now 19 and 20, have never voted, by conscious choice. I’m one of those four. In the 2016 presidential election, nearly half (46.9%) of all Americans eligible to vote did not vote (“US Elections”). That same election year, in some swing states, those candidates which won the state won by less than 10,000 votes; if more people choose to vote, the outcome could have been different (Mei). In this essay I will argue that political apathy in the United States is a complex problem worth our attention; to do this, I’ll explain what political apathy is, why people are against it (after all, my vote doesn’t matter, right?), why people choose not to vote at all, why mandatory voting won’t work (explaining the counterargument), and discuss possible solutions to reduce political apathy.

“Why there really is no ethical reason not to vote,” an article published by The Conservation published in February of 2022 outlines a primary argument against political apathy. The article was released following midterm elections, which happen every two years. Midterm elections are notorious for having even lower voter turnout than presidential elections. The author of the article, Scott Davidson, a philosopher who teaches ethics and political philosophy, aims to point out flaws in the arguments people make against voting. He first targets one of the largest issues in vote abstinence, namely lack of voter education. These people, he claims, abstain from voting because they don’t know enough about what they are voting for. Davidson’s counterargument in this instance is political philosopher Jason Brennan, who argues that it is an ethical obligation for uninformed citizens to refrain from casting their vote, as uninformed voting could damage the American political ecosystem. Davidson claims that this problem is easily resolvable, as candidate information is more easily accessible than ever. However, he does mention that it is difficult to find non-biased agenda-driven information sources on candidates. Companies that report on the policies of politicians often manipulate their words to better suit their narrative, or exhibit a selection bias in what they report on. Additionally, to thoroughly understand all the policies that politician supports, whether or not they’ll be effective in their respective department, whether or not they’ll pass through the house and the senate, and a number of other issues make the time commitment to a full understanding of a candidates profile even lengthier. Davidson even mentions this, and the examining reader notices that his own mentioning of it cripples his arguments; “The honesty of this group of nonvoters is praiseworthy, especially in comparison with overconfident voters who suffer from what psychologists call the “Dunning-Kruger effect” and wrongly believe that they are better informed than they are.” So, political education is a potential solution to political apathy, but getting a “sufficient” amount of knowledge from reliable sources is a complex task. It's difficult to know when one is educated enough to vote, and even then, if their education is as unbiased as possible, allowing people to make their own decisions to contribute to democracy. Davidson’s proposal both proposes a solution to a problem while introducing a couple of new problems, further complicating the nature of political apathy. 

Davidson then goes on to discuss other arguments people make such as dislike of candidates or that their vote would be contributing to a corrupt system. Political apathy takes many different shapes, these being some of them. A key reason for political apathy, at least in my case, has been the thought that “my vote doesn’t do anything.” There has never been an election in the United States in which the people were polled, and one side won/lost by one vote. My singular vote won’t change anything, yes. But here we reach an interesting paradox; if you grouped all the people together who argued this and got them to vote, their singular votes together would change something, but no single person can rally all non-voters to begin voting on this premise (if all are rallied, one can still abstain from voting and in all likelihood, be correct in their assertion that their single vote won’t change anything). 15% of registered voters didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election because they felt their vote didn’t count (“5 Reasons”). Based on those raw statistics, depending on the distribution of those statistics, those 15% could have changed the outcome of the election. So, why don’t we make voting mandatory? We could just implement voter education, and punish those who don’t vote, eliminating many of the reasons people give for not voting. Corruption is in the nature of American politics, and whether one chooses to vote or not to vote, it wins either way. So what’s the big deal? A CATO Institute commentary by Andy Craig published in early 2022 addresses this. 

If we were to implement mandatory voting, we wouldn’t be alone; Australia, alongside other countries, mandate that those capable of voting vote. When Americans were polled, only 26% favored the idea in a report presented by the Brookings Institution and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center. This study presented an interesting counterpoint to those against political apathy, “the evidence shows it would have little effect on election outcomes because non‐​voters tend to break down about the same as for voters in their partisan preferences.” In Australia, an issue arises similar to the one Davidson’s counterpart Jason Brennan issued in the previous paragraph, in that Australians will just choose the first name on the ballot or leave the ballot blank to avoid punishment, thus harming the democratic ecosystem. In this we find the problem with forcing people to vote, who otherwise wouldn’t (Craig). Additionally, forcing people to vote is a potential violation of the constitution. In the first amendment, pertaining to freedom of speech, people are granted the right to to voice their opinions and to not voice them. In this country, a law like that would be difficult to pass, especially with the little support it received from the public. 

When I began researching for this essay, I expected to find strong arguments against political apathy. While I did find some, in addition to reasons for political apathy, my research into the counterargument complicated things. This is an extremely complex issue, and is one that the strength of American democracy rests upon. Resolving some of the issues Davidson mentioned such as voter education would certainly increase voter participation, it is uncertain as to whether or not it will have a significant impact on American democracy; but we may never know. Given that mandatory voting is not only unconstitutional but is also likely to damage democratic systems, a legal solution to the issue seems improbable. What we’re faced with is a complex issue that involves different perspectives on what to do (if anything), and a cross-pollination amongst the solutions, further complicating what the best course of action for American democracy might be. 

Works Cited

“US Elections Project - 2016G.” US Elections Project - 2016g, www.electproject.org/2016g. Accessed 31 July 2023. 

Mei, Gina. “Almost Half of Eligible Voters Didn’t Vote in This Election.” Cosmopolitan, 1 Nov. 2021, www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8265143/almost-half-eligible-voters-did-not-vote-election-2016/. 

Davidson, Scott. “Why There Really Is No Ethical Reason Not to Vote.” The Conversation, 30 June 2023, theconversation.com/why-there-really-is-no-ethical-reason-not-to-vote-193612. 

“5 Reasons People in the US DON’T VOTE.” Global Citizen, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-people-dont-vote/. Accessed 31 July 2023. 

Craig, Andy. “Mandatory Voting Is a Bad and Unconstitutional Idea.” Cato.Org, 17 June 2022, www.cato.org/commentary/mandatory-voting-bad-unconstitutional-idea.