About half of the people vote in American
presidential elections, and even less in off
year elections. Many believe it is due to voter
apathy, and demand the government and
other groups to get out the vote.



1. It is a misleading description of the problem
2. It is an incorrect explanation of the problem
3. It proposes a solution that will not work.

1. How best to describe the problem

Data on voter turnout in America is misleading because
they compute participation rates by two different
measures.
 In America only 2/3 of the voting age population is
registered to vote
 Voting age population VS registered voters.

2. A better explanation for the problem
It is not apathy on election day it is that those that are
registered vote.
 The real source of the problem is that a relatively low
percentage of the population is not registered to vote.


3. How to cure the problem

A get out the vote drive will not make a difference instead a
plan that would get more people to register could work.
 2008 political scientists Donald Green and Alan Gerber
examined the findings from over 100 studies of GOTV tactics
 Door to door and phone calls were the only tactics that showed
significant results but most voters stilled did not vote.
 Another 2008 study fount that social pressure through mailings
increased voter turn out but still 62% of those pressured still did not
vote.

If voter turnout is to improve we must
 1. more registered voters to vote. 30% do not vote
 2. nonregistered voters must become registered
 When asked why they do not vote registered voters answered
 Too busy/scheduling conflicts
 Family chores/obligations
 Their vote would not make a difference.

The answer to problem one could be





Make election day a national holiday
Hold national elections on weekends
Mail-in ballots/absentee ballots all states do this and since 2004 26
states allow voters to use absentee and they do not need to show
that they live out side the state. (no fault absentee)
2008 research showed that this flexibility and convenience
has done little to increase voter turnout.
The answer to the second problem

In our nation the burden of registering to vote falls on the
individual.
 Must learn how when, and where to register
 Must take the time and trouble to go somewhere and fill out the
registration form
 They have to do it all over if they move

In other nations the government registers the people that is why
less people are registered here than abroad.

In 1993 Congress passed the motor voter law to make it easier to
register.






It requires states to allow people to register when applying for a driver’s
licenses and provide registration through the mail and at some state offices
that serve the disabled or provide public assistance.
The law took effect in 1995 and within two months 630,000 new voters
registered in 27 states, but the results of the law have been mixed.
There is little evidence that the motor voter law has had much of an impact
on either voter turnout or election outcomes.
In 2001 study showed that millions had registered but they were less likely
to vote.
Is it that low voter turnout is a symptom of political disease or a
sign of political good health?
The important question about participation is not how much
participation there is but how different kinds of participation
affect the kind of government we get.

When the Constitution was ratified the right to
vote was limited to property owners or tax
payers, but by the time of Andrew Jackson the
right to vote had been extended to virtually all
white males





.property restrictions (New Jersey 1944 North
Carolina 1956)
African Americans even if they were free
Women not until 1920 19th Amendment
Chinese Americans denied the right to vote
Aliens were allowed to vote if working toward
citizenship.


Initially, who got to vote and for what office
was left to the states to decide.
Constitution only gave Congress;



The right to pick the day on which presidential
electors would gather
Alter state regulations regarding congressional
elections.
The only Constitutional provision requiring a
popular election is found in Article I saying
that members of the House of Representatives
are to be chosen by the people of the states.

Because of this freedom given to the states
early federal elections varied greatly.
Some states picked their House members at large
while others used districts
 Some states had more than one representative per
district
 Some held elections on odd numbered years
 Some states required that a candidate had to win a
majority instead of a plurality to win election.
 Presidential electors were picked at first by the state
legislatures and not the voters directly.


Congress by both law and Amendments, has
steadily reduced the states freedoms on
elections.




In 1842, a federal law required that all
members of the House be elected by districts
All federal elections have to be held in evennumbers years on the first Tuesday following
the first Monday in November.
The most important changes have been those
that extended the right of suffrage
1. 15th Amendment 1870


The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied by
the United States or by any state on the account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
This did not mean that African Americans could
vote why?

The Supreme Court in the 1870s interpreted the
15th Amendment as not necessarily giving the
right to vote to anyone but that the amendment
merely stated that if someone was denied the
right to vote it could not be explicitly on the
grounds of race.


Burden of proof that race was the reason for the
denial fall on the African American turned way at
the polls.
This interpretation paved the way for states to
keep African Americans from voting.



Literacy test
Poll tax
Grandfather clause (before 1867)

White primary




Keep African Americans from voting in in primary
elections in the south through arbitrary use of
registration requirements and intimidation.
A long and slow legal process started to
challenge in court each of these restrictions and
one by one the Supreme Court ended them all
1915 grandfather clauses declared
unconstitutional
1944 white primary were ended in the case
Smith v Allwright

Since political parties select candidates for public
office, they may not exclude blacks from voting in
their primary elections.


The result of these rules was only a small
proportion of voting age blacks were able to
register and vote in the south Why?
Real change came with the Voting Rights Act
1965
Suspended literacy test
 Authorized the appointment of federal examiners
who could order the registration of blacks in states
and counties where fewer than 50% of the voting age
population were registered or had voted in the last
presidential election.
 Provided criminal penalties for interfering with the
right to vote.


2. Women
They were kept form voting not through
intimidation but by law.
 By 1915 many western states had started to give
women the right to vote.
 19th Amendment ratified in 1920 that gave women
the right to vote this almost doubled the size of the
voting eligible population.
 No dramatic changes, women voted more or less in
the same manner as men, though not quite as often.
 Winners and substance of public policy did not
change.


3. lower the voting age to 18


He voting rights Act of 1970 gave 18 year olds the
right in federal elections, it included a provision
lowering the voting age to 18 in state elections but
the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
Why?
26th Amendment was ratified in 1971 and the 1972
election was the first time those 18-21 could vote.

National standards now govern almost every
aspect of voter eligibility






All people 18 and older
No literacy test or poll taxes
State can not have residency requirements longer than 30
days
An area with a large no English speaking population
must have ballots written in their language.
Federal voter registrars and poll watches may be sent into
areas where less than 50% of the voting age population
participates in a presidential election
23rd Amendment DC residents can vote for President
1991.



Debate about declining percentages of eligible
adults who vote (two theories)
1. real decline caused by lessening popular
interest and decreasing party mobilization.
2. Apparent decline, caused in part by the more
honest ballot counts of today.
Parties once printed the ballots
 Ballots were cast in public
 Parties controlled counting
 Rules regarding voter eligibility were easily
circumvented.



Most scholars see some real decline why?
1. registration is more difficult





Longer residency requirements
Educational qualifications ;discrimination
Registration has to occur far in advance of the
election.
Australian Ballot government printed replaced party
printed ballots, cast in secret.
2. Is voter turnout really down (NO)


Voting age population
Voting eligible population


Voting is the most common form while giving
money to a candidate and being a member of a
political organization are the least common.
Americans almost always exaggerate how often
they vote or how active they are in politics.
Studies show that 8 to 10 percent of Americans misreport
their voting habits
 Young, low income, less educated, and nonwhite are
more likely to misreport



Research shows that politics is not at the heart of
the day to day life of Americans
Studies show that a larger amount of Americans
take part in nonpolitical activities



A study analyzing the ways in which people
participate in politics.
1. Inactive (22 percent) they rarely vote and do
not get involved in organizations, almost never
talk politics. They are typically young, low
income, African Americans.
2. Activists (11 percent) they participate in all
forms of politics. Highly educated, high
income, middle-aged


3. Voting Specialists they vote but do little else.
They tend to not have much schooling or
income, and tend to be older.
4. Campaigners they vote but they also like to
get involved in campaign activities, they are
more educated than the average voter, they are
interested in the conflicts, passions, and
struggle of politics. They identify with a
political party, willing to take strong positions


5. Communalists like the campaigners in social
background but they do not like the conflict
and tension of partisan campaigns they instead
use their energy for community activities of a
nonpartisan nature (form or join groups to deal
with local issues and contact local officials)
6. Parochial participants They do not vote and
stay out of campaigns but are willing to contact
local officials.


1. Those with more education , high level of
political information.
2. Religious involvement
Leads to social connectedness, teaches the skills
associated with participation.
 Awareness of issues


3. Men and women vote at the same rate but blacks
and whites do not Why?



Social class
Income
Education
 Among people of the same socioeconomic status blacks tend
to vote more than whites.



Because the population has become younger, and
because the population of minorities is growing
this could explain lower voter turn out why?
The number of people graduating from college
what should this mean?
Why than is voter turn out low

Distrust of government
 Data shows that there is no connection between distrust of
political leaders and voting.

Registration requirements
 Federal law 30 days before election
 By mail
 Same day as election (4 states) Maine Oregon Minnesota



1. Younger population together with a growing
number of minorities
2. political parties today are no longer as
effective as they once were in getting people to
vote
3. impediments to registration have influence.


If every state had the same requirements as the most
permissive states turn out would increase.
Universal enrollment.

4. Since not voting is costless there will be more
nonvoting.




Voting compulsory (Italy government papers)
Fines for not voting (Australia)
5. voting will decline if people feel that the election
does not matter
There are a number of reasons why we register and
vote less often than people of other nations. Two
studies of all the factors found that almost all of the
differences in turnout among the 24 democratic nations
could be explained by



Party strength
Automatic registration
Compulsory voting laws

Americans vote less than people from other nations but
we participate more in other ways



We vote less but we vote for more public officials than
do other nations.


Campaigning, contacting government officials
Demonstrations
Study estimated that we have 521,000 elected offices in the
United States.
U.S. turnout rates are skewed to higher status people



Our elections do not reflect our population
Professional, managerial, white-collar
Minority population is growing faster than white
 Nonpolitical institutions
 language