Los Angeles Frets After Low Tournout to Elect Mayor 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/us/los-angeles-frets-about-its-low-voter-turnout.html?ref=politics

 

Por Oscar Espino Zorrilla

Comportamiento Político

 

Today we will make an analysis of the 2013 primary elections to elect mayor in the city of Los Angeles on last Tuesday. Was held to elect the mayor primary election in the city of Los Angeles California, and the result of these was not very encouraging as it has been the most expensive in history costing 19 million dollars, and to top it off only 21 percent of the registered population turned out to vote, the lowest rate since 1978. Experts wonder, municipal elections are really boring, even when the city is experiencing a difficult financial situation, the mediocrity of candidates who do not encourage people to vote or voter fatigue presidential elections that took a few months ago? or cold weather did leave people at home. Those are the questions that come to this serious problem of low voter turnout.

This problem is going to relate to reading Political Behavior of the American Electorate where we can see the low participation of citizens to vote and more time when it comes to elections for mayors. The author mentions that in the American system there are two types of deviant status, alienation and manipulation. The first describes the voters are characterized by a great interest and a low turnout and is most common among Americans. While the second describes voters that are characterized by having a little interest and have a great turnout. These cases are troubling because voters have no interest involved in the election and bring ignorance while voters do not really care to attend to vote. It is difficult to know the reason for not attending to vote, the financial problems of the Angels are estimated at over 216 million.

Conclusion: The low participation of citizens in the municipal elections is worrying. The everyday American citizen less involved in such exercises as different factors make people not interested in voting, this took away the citizenship of the problems we as a society have to solve together. Participation is essential to achieve the goals you have, the people to express their feelings at the polls, the options provided for the candidate to present. Remember that successful democracies fall in the consent of the governed, a democratic system of government however minimal allowing its citizens the opportunity to organize themselves, to express themselves and choose their leaders freely.Remember that a democratic society has commitments to certain principles, provides support and legitimacy for the operation of political institutions, which include freedom, equality and individualism.