Effects of voting on elections

Politics and Governance

Causes and effects of not voting in elections

Today, voting has become one of the best ways in which citizens get to know the opinions of the candidates. Voting allows the citizens to select candidates who best represent their views. In this way, the voter's future can be decided by the decisions they make when voting for their candidates. Voting is significant in that, it helps democracy to prevail as well as, if people did not vote they may be ruled by someone who would not necessarily represent them. Most people fail to vote for their candidates because they think that their vote will not make a difference. Therefore, voting may be ineffective when people fail to go and vote, hence, it is the citizens' duty to listen to the information provided by the candidates since this will enable them to decide who the best is to represent them within the country (Teixeira, 2008). In summary, this paper will discuss on the causes as well as, the effects of not voting in elections.

There are many reasons why people should vote; firstly, voting allows the citizens to demonstrate their approval or disapproval of the politicians, party or policy. It gives legitimacy to the government along with demonstrating that people have had a chance of making themselves heard. According to surveys carried in America, the cause of not voting in elections is because people are eligible to vote, but they are not registered. Other people tend to be very busy hence they do not have time for waiting long in lines so as to vote. There is the other category of non-voters who are simply afraid of discrimination hence would rather avoid making their stand known through voting, for instance the African-American who live in the south in U.S. (Ginsberg & Shefter, 2009). These issues for many years have shed new light on the barriers to voting as well as, sources of information which influence people when they do vote.

The impacts of failure to vote are such that in countries such as in the United States, people who fail to vote have no moral right so to speak to complain. In some ways this may be true, because people are always given freedom to express their opinions in order to elect officials who will satisfy their needs. The other impact of not voting is that, people may see drastic changes if the citizens elected wrong individuals to lead them, through abstinence from voting a wrong candidate may find his way to the elective position and the right candidate locked out. Furthermore, people who fail to vote in an election tend not to exercise their right to vote. For instance, in a case where an individual has a candidate to vote for, but incase he/she did not making the candidate to lose with one vote, it is absolutely true that the person would regret for having not voted for his/her preferred candidate. It is therefore evident that, each vote usually has an impact to the candidates (Teixeira, 2008).