Two Stories

Story One

Despite being one of the most, if not the most, influential nation in the world, United States citizens have an abysmal record on past voter turnouts. In the 1996 presidential election, just under 65% of eligible voters in the U.S. turned out to vote compared to 88% of New Zealanders, 76% of Spaniards, 86% of Swedes, 79% of French, 82% of Italians and 78% of Germans. That’s just a sampling too. In fact, out of the world’s 20 largest democratic nations, only the Japanese and the Swiss ranked lower in voter turnouts.

I want my story to visually show the viewer how much bigger the amount of voters are in other countries, perhaps by showing size comparisons in the shapes of the country. It’s no secret that the choices made by the U.S. influences the world in a huge way and our votes greatly affect those choices. Still, way too many people don’t care and maybe by seeing how so many citizens of other nations without the influence of the U.S. vote, they’ll get a sense of perspective and go out to vote.

Story Two

Though there is a large amount of younger voters that are simply apathetic to the whole political system, there is a large amount that are at least slightly aware of what’s going on with the government and many aren’t happy. Young people are often notorious about being very “against the system,” yet also notorious about never showing up to the polls. Only 58% even register and many less even show up.

On the other side of the spectrum, 79% of senior citizens register to vote. Overall, 70% of all those over 45 years of age actually show up. I want to visually show that because of youth stubbornness to vote, it’s the seniors and older people of the nation that are constantly choosing the futures of young people election after election. This trend will never change until youth voters can band together and work to make whatever change they wish to see the United States. I want to portray America’s youth as complaining about the current status of the country, yet choose to stay home on Election Day. On the other side, I want to show older voters voting and actually making things happen.