The Impact of Election Laws on the Turnout of Young People

Abstract

The twenty sixth amendment of the United States Constitution says that no citizen over the age of 18 years old shall be denied the right to vote. Despite this constitutional amendment, there are many barriers that hinder this act of voting. Multiple types of barriers exist: location, time, money, and most important to this research, legislative barriers. Based on the voter turnout of all Americans across the country, it appears that these barriers seem to disproportionately affect young people and minorities. The low turnout rates among youth and minorities are a serious threat to the effectiveness of our representative democracy in the United States. Since the raw data for the turnout of minorities does not exist, the effects laws have on their turnout will not be determined in this paper. Minorities, however, will still be discussed in the review of literature because of their importance in regards to voter turnout.