Why We Should Be Required To Vote Dbq Essay

The citizens of America are no longer as involved with the government as they used to be. Since World War II the voter turnout in America is continuously decreasing and has yet to stray above 65%. Shouldn’t America, land of the free, have one of the highest voter turnouts? This brings up the question; should Americans be required to vote? The United States should have compulsory voting, the reasons being that more persons will become educated in voting, other countries have successful compulsory voting systems, and that America has always required things of it’s citizens. Compulsory voting would help citizens to become further educated about voting. In accordance to the George Mason University citizens with a lower education or are of a younger age, have a lower percentage of voter turnout(Doc. B). This would be caused by the fact that these citizens don’t have much knowledge of how to vote. Having compulsory voting would eliminate this due to the fact that
Countries like Australia, Italy, Peru and more, have compulsory voting, from the source of the International institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance(International IDEA)(Doc. A). These countries have had required voting for at least a century. Not only that but there have been countries that have had successful compulsory voting. An example would be Peru’s compulsory voting system which will be represented by a Jimmy Carter’s “Peru Trip Report” which he wrote after visiting Peru after his presidency. “...they overcame this initial problem, and nationwide voting was completed almost perfectly and on time.” “We could see no possibility of any error in the casting and counting of ballots, and (for the first time in our experience as monitors) there was not a single complaint….”(Doc. E). With the evidence above it can be seen that not only do other countries have compulsory voting but have done it