Who are the people who don't vote and why don't they? - Consider This by JD Consider This by JD

Who are the people who don’t vote and why don’t they?

In the 2016 presidential election, roughly 100 million eligible voters — not untypical — did not vote. Who are these people, and why don’t they vote?

Pew Research concluded in 2006 that Americans who either vote rarely or aren’t registered to vote are much more likely than regular or intermittent voters to believe that voting doesn’t change things. Plus, those who rarely vote or aren’t registered say they are sometimes either too busy to vote and find it too difficult to vote.

Income and age correlate to voting. Only 11% of Americans earning $75,000 or more are not registered while 36% of Americans earning less than $30,000 are not registered. Fourteen percent of those 65 and older are not registered, but 40% of Americans between 18 and 29 years old are not registered.

The voting process itself hinders turnout. Findings from the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released in 2014 revealed that over 5 million voters in 2012 experienced wait times exceeding one hour and another 5 million waited between a half-hour and an hour. This isn’t a new problem, and it exists for myriad reasons, such as insufficient staffing. Ohio still needs about 20,000 more poll workers.

Waiting over an hour to vote isn’t just inconvenient for many, it’s unworkable. More than 53 million Americans earn median hourly wages of $10.22 and annual wages of $17,950. If you’re in this group, your work hours are likely inflexible. Voting probably means taking time away from work — if you can get it — with no pay. While not everyone in this group might be eligible to vote, the breadth of low-paying jobs should help us understand why voting is difficult for many.

The commission offered several remedies, such as online voter registration. When the report was published, only a few states offered online voter registration. Now, 39 states and the District of Columbia do, and 19 states and D.C. have some form of automatic voter registration. More states need to get onboard with simplifying the process.

Instead of locating polling places near voters’ residences, polling places should be placed at sites where voters either pass by or stop by in the normal course of the day. The NBA is lending a hand by making many of its arenas available for polling.

Roughly half of poll workers are retired — thank goodness for them — but shouldn’t we be making this civil duty more attractive to younger voters? Better training, generally found by the commission to be insufficient, is warranted.

If the goal is higher voter participation, we need to make the entire process simple and convenient.

Research conducted by Pew in 2015 evidences how far removed low-income Americans are from politics. Survey participants were divided into five groups based on a variety of economic measurements. The groups at the two extremes were characterized as most secure and least secure financially.

Ninety-five percent of those in the most secure group were registered to vote in 2014, as opposed to just 54% of the least secure. Sixty-nine percent of the most secure group voted in 2010, versus just 30% of the least secure.

Perhaps most significant, 62% of the most secure knew which party controlled both the House and Senate, but only 26% of the least secure did. This latter group is composed largely of women with a high school degree or less, who are either divorced, separated or never married. The vast majority are either just meeting their expenses or don’t have enough money to meet their expenses.

It’s no surprise this group doesn’t get concerned about voting. When you’re struggling to survive, the promises of presidential candidates are as distant as the moon. If you’re earning less than $20,000 a year, your life looks much different in terms of daily challenges than it does for someone earning more than $75,000.

For too many Americans, voting is just too hard and, even if they vote, it doesn’t seem to change their lives.

[This post was published as an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch on Sept. 28, 2020.]

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Jack D’Auora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com

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Debbie September 30, 2020

Maybe this time it’s because out of 360,000,000 people, these two are the best we can do!!!

Brian Murphy September 30, 2020

Jack – I have not read the study but as your essay indicates, the data should yield some fairly clear actions needed to improve voting rates. As a society, it is clearly within our reach to make it much easier for all eligible voters both to register and to vote. This last four years have opened my eyes to the reality that there are many, many Americans who are in favor of frustrating the voting rights of some groups of their fellow citizens. So, a large portion of the opportunity to improve voting rights lies in selecting leaders who will implement sensible policies and procedures that will make registering and voting both more convenient and more secure. The second dimension that you identify – many citizens’ loss of their will to vote – is more challenging. My first thought is that we need to raise up a new generation of political leaders with fresh vision and energy – leaders who will excite all eligible voters to believe that the American political system is good and important and that their vote matters.

Bill Lyons October 1, 2020

We should make the election day a national holiday or, at least, hold it over a weekend, not a Tuesday. As for people not voting, I highly recommend a movie about voter suppression called “Rigged” https://www.riggedthefilm.com/watch-at-home . It is a national disgrace that this has been allowed to happen!

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