What features distinguish voters from nonvoters? Why don’t some people vote, and what is being done to improve voter turnout?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Compared to voters, nonvoters tend to be younger (aged 18–29), have lower incomes, and be less educated. Minorities also tend to vote less frequently than do whites. There are numerous reasons why people do not vote. Nonvoters likely lack political efficacy. Other systematic causes drive down participation, including the difficulty faced in registering to vote in the United States, requiring voting on Tuesdays, and the frequency of American elections. In recent decades, people have increasingly held negative views of political leaders, had less political efficacy, and identified less frequently with one political party, compared with citizens in the past. Parties have not always put intense effort into mobilizing voters, and people generally feel less connected to society. Finally, some scholars have argued that it is perhaps rational not to vote. Based on a pure cost-benefit decision, a voter may not feel that his or her vote will make a difference in the election outcome. Efforts to remedy low voter turnout include the Motor Voter Bill, which allows voters to register at any government office; efforts on the parts of some states to make voting easier (like Oregon’s vote-by-mail system); increasing partisanship, which may lead to greater turnout; increased effort toward voter mobilization in recent elections; and a shift in the cost-benefit analysis of voting. For example, more than just benefiting if one’s vote made a difference in the outcome, citizens may benefit from participating and feeling as though they are doing a good deed; fulfilling their civic duty may help voters feel that voting is rational for other reasons.