| | Lowest ever turnoutJune 8, 2009 - Jessica VanderKolkWe talk in Pennsylvania a lot about voter turnout. Europe recently hit a new low. Spiegel reported today on the recent European Union elections, with less than half of the 375 million eligible voters turning out. That's the lowest turnout since voting started in 1979. Germany and France saw the lowest turnout, with Germany at 42.2 percent. Winners were in center-right and right-wing parties. In Germany, the center-left Social Democratic Party was the big loser, with just over 20 percent of the vote. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union got just over 30 percent of the vote. How important is it to you to get to the polls? Article Comments(1)FCBayernJun-08-09 5:46 PM I eagerly voted the first time in the Presidential Election of 1968 as I had turned 21 that year which was legal voting minimum age. It was my first experience of voting against candidates rather than for a particular person. Unfortunately that has continued for 40 years. As a libertarian, it's difficult to choose when you know the two main parties make everything impossible for any other party. President Eisenhower warned against the military industrial complex which created the entire lobbyist concept that continues to paralyze good public policy choices. After seeing administration after administration look after its own interests rather than the interest of the American people, one gets a feeling of futility since nothing ever appears to change. Voting can become very discouraging, even for people like me who have degrees in political science. So although I consider it important to vote, it frequently seems to be a waste of time. Post a Comment | |
