Voter Turnout & Behavior
AP GoPo
How do Americans participate in
government?
• What are some historical events that may have
impacted political participation in the U.S.?
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Literacy testing
Poll taxes
Grandfather clause
White primaries
15th Amendment
19th Amendment
26th Amendment
What factors impact participation in
government?
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Religious involvement
Education
Race & ethnicity
Age
Gender
Two-party competition
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_gro
ups_voted/voted_12.html
• http://www.people-press.org/2006/10/18/who-voteswho-doesnt-and-why/
• http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm
Nonvoting
• Low turnout compared to Europe
– Compares registered voters to eligible adult pop.
• Voter apathy on Election Day
– Low registration rates
– Stats?
• Get Out the Vote Drives
– Is this a solution?
– Impact on those who aren’t registered
Nonvoting
• Causes of non-registration:
– U.S. registration process vs. European countries
where free registration is automatic
• http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-andcampaigns/voter-id.aspx
• Voting isn’t the only type of participation
– Military service, volunteer work, etc.
• How do different kinds of participation affect
government?
Nonvoting
• Motor-voter law of 1993
• http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/nvra/ac
tiv_nvra.php
• Increased registration throughout the country
• Voter ID Laws?
– http://news.yahoo.com/study-voter-id-laws-cutturnout-blacks-young-221257715--election.html
Rise of the American Electorate
• From state to federal control:
• Initially, states decided who could vote for which
offices
• This led to wide variation in federal elections
• Congress has since reduced state prerogatives
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1842 law: House members elected by district
Suffrage to women
Suffrage to blacks
Suffrage to eighteen- to twenty-year-olds
Direct popular election of U.S. senators
Black Voting Rights
• Fifteenth Amendment gutted by Supreme Court as not
conferring a right to vote b. Southern states then used
evasive stratagems:
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Literacy test
Poll tax
White primaries
Grandfather clauses
Intimidation of black voters
• Most of these stratagems ruled out by Supreme Court
• Major change with 1965 Voting Rights Act; black vote
increases
Women’s Voting Rights
• Several western states permitted women to
vote by 1915
• Nineteenth Amendment ratified 1920
• No dramatic changes in outcomes
– Why??
Youth Vote
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Voting Rights Act of 1970
Twenty-sixth Amendment ratified 1971
Lower turnout; no particular party
National standards now govern most aspects
of voter eligibility
• Twenty-third Amendment ratified 1961, gave
District of Columbia residents the right to vote
in presidential elections
Voting Turnout
• Debate of declining percentages: two theories a .
Real decline as popular interest and party
competition decreases
– Apparent decline, induced in part by more honest
ballot counts of today
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Parties once printed ballots
Ballots cast in public
Parties controlled counting
Australian ballot began to be adopted in 1910
– http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/43932/
Australian-ballot
Voting Turnout
• Most scholars see some real decline due to
several causes:
• Registration more difficult-longer residency;
educational qualifications; discrimination
• Continuing drop after 1960 cannot be
explained according to Wilson (American
Government: Institutions & Policies) but
clearly political efficacy plays a role.
Watergate, Vietnam, etc...
Who participates in Politics?
• Voting the commonest form of participation
• Verba and Nie's Six Forms of Participation:
– Inactives - People who rarely vote, do not get involved in
organizations, and do not even talk much about politics. They
account for about 22 percent of the population.
– Voting specialists - People who vote but participate in little else
politically. They tend not to have much schooling or income, and
to be substantially older than the average person.
– Campaigners - People who not only vote but like to get involved
in campaign activities as well. The are better educated than the
average voter, but what distinguishes them most is their interest
in the conflicts of politics, their clear party identification, and
their willingness to take strong positions.
Who participates in Politics?
• Communalists - people who tend to reserve their
energies for community activities of a nonpartisan
kind. Their education and income are similar to those
of campaigners.
• Parochial participants - People who do not vote and
stay out of election campaigns and civic associations,
but who are willing to contact local officials about
specific, often personal, problems.
• Complete activists - An individual, usually outside
government, who actively promotes a political party,
philosophy, or issue he or she cares personally about.
Causes of Participation
• Those with schooling, or political information,
more likely to vote
• Religious affiliation?
– http://www.pewforum.org/2012/11/07/how-thefaithful-voted-2012-preliminary-exit-poll-analysis/
• Gender?
– http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/voters/docu
ments/genderdiff.pdf
• Race?
– http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-568.pdf
Level of Trust in Government
• Is there a correlation between trust & voting?
– http://www.people-press.org/2010/04/18/distrust-discontentanger-and-partisan-rancor/
• Difficulty of registering?
– As turnout has declined, registration barriers have been lowered
– Several small factors decrease turnout
• More youths, blacks, and other minorities in population,
pushing down percent registered
– Decreasing effectiveness of parties in mobilizing voters
• Remaining impediments to registration
• Voting compulsory in other nations
• Possible feeling that elections do not matter
Democrat & Republican Solutions?
• No one really knows who would be helped by
increased turnout
– Nonvoters tend to be poor, minority, or uneducated
• But an increasing percentage of college graduates
are also not voting
• Hard to be sure that turnout efforts produce
gains for either party:
• http://www.fairvote.org/research-andanalysis/voter-turnout/
• http://www.people-press.org/topics/voterparticipation/
The meaning of participation rates
• Americans vote less, but participate more a.
Other forms of activity becoming more
common
– Some forms more common here than in other
countries
• Americans elect more officials and have more
elections
How does the U.S. Compare?
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howardsteven-friedman/voter-turnout-europeamerica_b_1660271.html
• How can we improve voting/voter turnout in
the U.S.?
– http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/15/200
0621/international-voting-reforms/
• Would these suggestions actually work here??
Key Terms & Definitions
• Activist: An individual, usually outside government, who actively
promotes a political party, philosophy, or issue he or she cares
personally about.
• Australian ballot: An election ballot of uniform size printed by the
government and cast in secret.
• Campaigners: According to Sidney Verba and Norman Nie, people
who not only vote but like to get involved in campaign activities as
well. The are better educated than the average voter, but what
distinguishes them most is their interest in the conflicts of politics,
their clear party identification, and their willingness to take strong
positions.
• Communalists: According to Sidney Verba and Norman Nie, people
who tend to reserve their energies for community activities of a
nonpartisan kind. Their education and income are similar to those
of campaigners.
Key Terms & Definitions
• Complete activists: According to Sidney Verba and Norman
Nie, people who are highly educated, have high incomes,
and tend to be middle-aged rather than young or old.
These people participate in all forms of politics and account
for 11 percent of the population.
• Fifteenth Amendment: The constitutional amendment that
guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race, color, or
pervious condition of slavery.
• Grandfather clause: A state law allowing people to vote,
even if they did not meet legal requirements, if an ancestor
had voted before 1867. The clause was used as a vehicle to
enable poor and illiterate whites to vote while excluding
blacks (who had no ancestor voting prior to 1867). Such
clauses were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Key Terms & Definitions
• Inactives: According to Sidney Verba and Norman Nie, people
who rarely vote, do not get involved in organizations, and do
not even talk much about politics. They account for about 22
percent of the population.
• Literacy test: A state law requiring potential voters to
demonstrate reading skills. The laws were frequently
implemented in a discriminatory fashion to prevent otherwise
qualified blacks from voting. These tests were suspended by
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• Motor-voter Bill: A law passed by Congress in 1993 that
requires states to allow people to register to vote when
applying for a driver's license and to provide registration
through the mail and at some state offices that serve the
disabled and provide public assistance. The law took effect in
1995.
• Nineteenth Amendment: An amendment to the Constitution
allowing women the right to vote.
Key Terms & Definitions
• Parochial participants: According to Sidney Verba and
Norman Nie, people who do not vote and stay out of election
campaigns and civic associations, but who are willing to
contact local officials about specific, often personal, problems.
• Poll tax: A state tax paid prior to voting. The tax was designed
to prevent blacks from voting since poor whites were usually
exempted through a grandfather clause. Poll taxes have been
made illegal.
• Registered voters: People who are eligible to vote in an
election and who have signed up with the government to
vote.
• Twenty-sixth Amendment: The 1971 constitutional
amendment that lowered the voting age in both state and
federal elections to eighteen. Congress had attempted to
achieve this goal through legislation, but the Supreme Court
ruled that the federal government had no authority to do so
with respect to state elections
Key Terms & Definitions
• Twenty-third Amendment: The 1961 constitutional amendment
permitting residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965: The federal law that suspended the use of
literacy tests in elections and authorized federal examiners to order the
registration of blacks in states and counties where fewer than 50 percent
of the voting-age population were registered or had voted in the last
presidential election.
• Voting-age population: The percentage of people in a country who are
eligible to vote because they satisfy the minimum age requirement.
• Voting specialists: According to Sidney Verba and Norman Nie, people
who vote but participate in little else politically. They tend not to have
much schooling or income, and to be substantially older than the average
person.
• White primary: The exclusion of blacks from voting in the primary
elections of political parties. Such primaries were employed largely in the
South where the Democratic party won almost all general elections. In
effect, winning the Democratic primary meant winning the election. The
Supreme Court voided the use of white primaries.