How do individuals and groups of people influence the political process?

People and groups influence the political process because of their rights to vote.  In connection with last week’s discussion, public opinion leads to ideals and optimistic situations that people want to see happen.  Because of this desire or drive to gain advantage in a process, people are likely to vote on the party they feel will accomplish this advantage for them.  Unfortunately, and as our text further elaborated on, people are not taking advantage of our voting privilege as often as they used to.  They either feel their vote will not count towards the election process, or could simply lack the knowledge that older generations had.  A large portion of uninterested voters could stem from the fact that politicians may seem conceded in a sense and really no better than his/her opponent.  It makes it hard to decide on a leader when you fail to see their leadership qualities.  Either that or a person may feel that despite the side of one party, neither offer a just resolution.  Where either situation may exist, the fact still remains that a big part of who places in office is up to the people.  We have that influence in politics so no matter how we feel about a particular individual, it would make sense to decide and cast our vote.  Importantly, if we aren’t too sure who we are voting are, we can always gather facts and use various resources then take a few minutes and view both sides.  In the end, the turnout could be just what the county needs.