My oldest daughter will vote in her first presidential election this year. She plans to come home from college so that she can cast her first vote in person. My daughter has gone with me to Presidential inaugurations and nominating conventions. And she has watched her dad accumulate a closet full of presidential campaign memorabilia ? some from back to the time of Abraham Lincoln.
An interest in politics comes naturally to her. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm for voting is not very widely shared. According to the Voting and Democracy Research Center, the United States is 20th out of 21 in voter turnout among established democracies. Only Switzerland ranks lower. Turnout in U.S. presidential elections is typically about 50 percent. By comparison, turnout is more than 80 percent in most other democracies. Even fragile new democracies, where people literally risk their lives to go to the polls, have turnout rates that are higher than ours.
