Why do the elderly vote in higher propotions than the young

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Why do the elderly vote in higher proportions than the young?
Problem statement
The recent political landscape has always targeted the youth more than any other age group especially when it comes to lobbying votes during major election, like the presidential election. This is because of the perceived fact that the youth make the biggest portion of the population in most countries and are the prime vote-holders. Most politicians and political agenda therefore revolver around tapping the votes of the youth into one basket as this is promised to win for the candidates. Most campaign strategies will lean on getting the youth to support the presidential aspirants (Andre 29).
However, since time immemorial, there have been speculations that every time there is a general election looming in the country, the voter turnout for the youth is usually poorer when compared to the voter turnout for the elderly in the society, especially those above the age of sixty five. This data show that there are a lot of laxities in the life of the youth that causes them to lag behind instead of coming out in their numbers to vote for their favorite right candidate, who they would wish to take the presidential office. It is also true that, on general terms, the turnout of the actual voters is usually much lower than the total number of registered voters within the country (Galasso 204). Statistics have had up to less than fifty percent voter turnout during a presidential vote on the record which is a disturbing fact.
Statistics show that the enthusiasm for voting within the youth is lowering with every passing election. Data released by the Gallup poll showed how only less than 58 percent of the youth aged between eighteen and twenty nine were ready to vote during the elections. This is a downward trend from the previous eighty eight percent who on the other hand, there were records of increased number of elderly voters with a two percent increase down from 2008. In as much as these statistics also gave out a general decreasing trend of voters in nearly every country, it was proven that only the youth have a declining interest in the politics and politicians themselves. Others simply do not have any politics "in their blood" to find any interest in it (Fournier 79).
It is important to understand that this misconception about the youth holding the power of the vote simply because of their numbers is misleading. If the politicians continue to delude themselves of these young voters, then they may as well be sure that their much awaited voters were ghost voters who only appear on the paper, but never queue to cast the ballot. Politicians wishing to hold their beliefs about the popular youth votes must work several times as hard to make them ready for the elections by creating awareness and civil education. The only way to make the statistics agree with the ideas about the youth popularity is to make the youth go out and other than remain at home or at work on Election Day, because of their disinterest in politics (Terry 70). If the nation and the world at large continue to wallow in the misconception that the youth is the majority vote, even with the poor turnout that has continued to dwindle, then there will reach a time when the youth will not turn out at all, and the important affair will be purely left for the aged of the community (Brenda 201).
Review of literature
Research question: Why do the elderly vote in higher proportions than the young?
Research done by Brenda shows that a region that has positive valence is attractive to the person, and exerts a force on the person to approach it; a region with negative valence is repulsive to the person, and exerts a force to avoid it. The actual behavior that will occur is dependent upon the constellation of this field of forces. This theory has been known to prove as the best theory so far, this is because it was able to most accurately suggest the reasons why the dynamics of voting are as they are. For this discourse, the external faros that may affects young voters participation include the negative violation and positive violation as captured by the expectancy theory. The negative violations include the negative political advertising which will reduce a candidate`s preference among the voters. This is simply because the voters themselves have set some expectations which must be met with otherwise they recoil from their "preferred" candidate.
Diana Ayoub writes in her research that about the report that has been revealed by the Center of information, research and civil learning and engaging, otherwise known as CIRCLE. In her document, Diana says that though every American adult citizen has the uninhibited right to vote for their favorite candidate during and general presidential election, the turnout of the youth has continued to dwindle and decrease with every new election. In the survey carried out by CIRCLE, the voters decreased by over two percent to stand at forty nine percent in 2012 from the initial fifty one percent in the 2008 general presidential election (Fournier 130). These figures give the researcher a reason to want to find out more about the scenario at hand. These astounding results can only have three possible causes. The first and most importantly is apathy, the second and coming out closely is the fact that most of this group of the society is mostly unmarried, and last but not least, the increased voting regulations and restrictions which make it impossible for the young to vote.
Apathy is defined as the complete lack of interest of emotion. This is especially when it comes to general matters of importance .And it is the number one reason why the American young population are not going out to vote and according to Hunk: 15, the young voters who are mostly between twenty two years of age and twenty nine years of age had a disillusions about the Obama`s presidency in the year 2008. At the time of the second vote, there was an even higher rate of unemployment at 7.9 percent. The economy has continued to fight at the verge of collapse and the rate of underemployment has also continued to increase over the years. Most young people who are between ...