Why vote?

All this week NPR news is doing a series on why people don’t vote. In midterm elections, such as we face in less than two months, 60% of eligible voters don’t. So NPR is exploring the issue. Are there particular types of people who don’t vote? Are there common reasons?

Normally, NPR has a page for each story it airs. This time it seems there is one page for the series. That’s why I can post about the whole week on Tuesday.

Non voters are more likely to support redistribution of wealth, housing bailouts, and expanding the social safety net. Meaning they like the Democratic Party platform.

There are people who want to vote and can’t. The barriers include voter ID laws, registration difficulty, and criminal records. An example of the last one, 10% of adults in Florida can’t vote because of felony convictions (any guesses on the likely race of those in this situation?). There have also been aggressive purges of voter rolls.

What about those who can vote and don’t?

We hear from a resident of North Las Vegas. He doesn’t vote because nobody taught him how. Where to go? What must I have with me? What happens there? How does my vote affect government policies? Do I know enough to vote? A lot of people in Las Vegas apparently feel the same way – people who would vote Democratic if they voted.

People who recently moved may not feel connected to local politics, so leave their voter registration in their previous city.

Because of things like this frequent voters tend to be older. Non voters tend to be younger. As a result, politicians care about Social Security, but not about student debt.

A big reason for not voting: I don’t think my vote matters. The system is rigged anyway. I didn’t like the choices in the last election. There is a long history of political corruption. The Electoral College (with its winner-take-all) means a Democratic voter in a red state, such as Texas, doesn’t have much incentive to vote. In addition, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and we still got the nasty guy. My vote doesn’t matter.

McDowell County, West Virginia has the lowest voter turnout in a state that has almost the lowest voter turnout. A big reason: Politicians never help McDowell County – the kids have to leave to have a good life. They promise anything, but it’s all a lie. Another reason: Voting takes time and that time is taken away from other priorities, such as working at one of several jobs. These people tend to be low-income and low-education.

Research shows that class – whether one is rich or poor – is more of a predictor of whether one votes than anything else – race, ethnicity, gender, or other demographic factor. And class tends to be determined by education level and parental class.

Being taught to vote has an ethnic component. Hispanics and Asians usually aren’t taught. Many in this group don’t want to show up to vote and not be prepared, yet they feel they don’t have enough time to study the candidates and issues.

And one more reason: If you have a history of not voting politicians ignore you. They have a budget that rarely allows them to chase down infrequent voters. They’re too busy chasing people they know will vote. So we get into a spiral: If politicians ignore you and your issues, why vote? If you don’t vote, politicians ignore you.