Political Participation Who Votes, Who Does Not

Is it still a democracy if no one votes?

Voter Expansion Amendments  15 th Amendment (1870): seemed to give suffrage to African Americans  19 th Amendment (1920): Women given suffrage  26 th Amendment (1971): 18-year-olds given suffrage  *Voting Rights Act ended literacy tests, poll tax, grandfather clause which states used to deny 15 th Amendment

What’s going on at the state level with voting registration today?  Pennsylvania  Iowa  Maine  Keep informed about upcoming Supreme Court decisions. Do they expand or contract voter participation?

Non- Voter Problem  Alleged problem: low turnout of voters in the U.S. compared to Europe  Data is misleading: it tends to compare turnout of the voting-age population; turnout of registered voters reveals the problem is not so severe  The real problem is low voter registration rates

Voter Participation in Presidential Elections,

Numbers in Mid-term elections even lower  36% of registered voters voted in  Compare U.S. with other nations…..

Voter Turnout  decline is caused by lessening popular interest and decreasing party mobilization (may be changing)  historical voter turnout figures may have been skewed by fraud  decline due to several causes, including the difficulty of registration

Verba and Nye’s 6 Levels of Participation  Inactives : rarely vote, rarely contribute to political organizations, or discuss politics; have little education, low income, young, many African- Americans; 22 percent  Voting specialists : vote but do little else; not much education or income, older  Campaigners : vote, get involved in campaign activities, more educated, interested in politics, identify with a party, take strong positions

Six Levels of Participation  Communalists : nonpartisan community activists with a local focus  Parochial participants : don’t vote or participate in campaigns or political organizations, but do contact politicians about specific problems  Activists : Participate in all forms of politics; highly educated, high income, middle age; 11 percent

Why has voter participation decreased and seems to be continuing in decline?  Use the data provided to answer the provided questions.  What are some major generalizations that can be made, given the numbers?  Brainstorm strategies for overcoming some of the perceived obstacles to voter participation.  Develop an action plan for a local, state, or national group to implement to increase voter participation.

Predictors of Participation  Those with schooling or political information are more likely to vote  Church-goers vote more, because church involvement develops the skills associated with political participation and may promote religion-based party loyalty- Republicans effectively utilizing this group  Men and women vote at the same rate, but vote differently

Predictors of Participation  Black participation is lower than that of whites overall  Controlling for socioeconomic status though, blacks participate at a higher rate than whites  Studies show no correlation between distrust of political leaders and not voting

Factors that Decrease Turn-out  Youths and minority groups in population are pushing down the percentage of eligible adults who are registered and vote  Parties are less effective in mobilizing voters  Other impediments to registration have some discouraging effects (PA)

Factors that Decrease Turn-out  Voting is not compulsory, as it is in some other nations  Some potential voters may feel that elections do not matter

Participation Beyond Voting in Fourteen Democracies