Political
Participation
Voter Turnout
Measured 3 ways (2008/2010 elections):
 Voting Age Population = 57% / 38%
 Voting Eligible Population = 61% / 41%
 Registered Voters = 63% (2000)
Is low voter turnout bad, or is it a
sign of good political health?
http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm
Scroll down for turnout for specific elections
Two
Methods of
Calculating
Turnout in
Presidential
Elections,
1948-2000

Voter turnout in United States
presidential elections
Limiting the Franchise
 Literacy
Test (Reading or Civics Test)
 Poll Tax (Pay to vote)
…what about poor whites?
 Grandfather
Clause (Could your
ancestors vote before 1867?)
 White Primary (party members only)
 Intimidation, Threats & Custom
Expanding the Franchise
 Property
 15th
Requirements (ended 1820s)
Amendment (…race, color, or
previous condition of servitude – 1870)
Amendment (Senators – 1913)
 19th Amendment (Women – 1920)
 General Citizenship Act (Native
 17th
Americans – 1924)
 26th
Amendment (18–21 year olds – 1971)
Enforcing the 15th Amendment
 Supreme Court Rulings
 1915 – NO Grandfather Clause
 1944 – NO White Primary (Smith v. Allwright)
 1949 – Restricted use of Literacy Tests
 Voting
 NO
Rights Act of 1965
Literacy Tests
 Federal examiners can register voters
 Justice Dept. must approve voting changes
in districts with a history of discrimination
 Criminal penalties for individual violators
Measuring Participation
 Non-Participants
(22%)
Trend:
young, little education, lower
income, many African Americans*
 Parochial
Get
Participants & Communalists
involved in local issues only
 Voting
Specialists & Campaigners
 Activists (11%)
Trend:
middle-age, high education,
higher income
Causes of Participation
 Education…
why?
High
levels of political information, OR
“learning about politics is easier and more
gratifying” (1982 study in Who Votes?)
 Religious
Social
 Social
Involvement
connection, awareness of issues
Class – Poor vote less frequently
Causes of Participation
 Race
Whites
vote more frequently, BUT…
At the SAME level of income &
schooling, BLACKS vote MORE often
Hispanics participate at low levels
 Age (18-24 = about 30-40% vote)
VOTING
increases with age
Electoral/Nonelectoral Political Participation Among Anglo
Whites, African Americans, and Latinos
Adapted from Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Scholzman, Henry Brady, and Norman H. Nie, Voice
and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995).
8 | 14
Forms of Participation
 Americans
participate MORE
frequently than Europeans
Civic
Activities = participation
European elections = infrequent
 Young
Adults
Volunteering
Community
at record rates
Service = good; Politics = bad
Nonpolitical Voluntary Activity
80%
Join Nonpolitical Org
70%
Attend Org Meeting
60%
Church Monthly
50%
Church Weekly
40%
Church Volunteering
30%
20%
10%
0%
Church Contribution
Charity Volunteering
Charitable
Contribution