Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:18:27.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Suppose They Held an Election and Almost Everybody Came!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Jerry W. Calvert  and
Jack Gilchrist
Jerry W. Calvert
Affiliation:
Montana State University
Jack Gilchrist
Affiliation:
Montana State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

No modern political system, with the possible exception of a few dictatorships, can produce close to a 100% turnout of all those who are legally eligible to vote. But imagine a democratic system in which almost all citizens of voting age were enrolled on the electoral register and in which most of them actually voted, sometimes producing an estimated turnout in excess of 90% (Crocker, et al. 1987). Such systems already exist, i.e., Australia, Sweden, but producing a registration level and voter turnout rate of such magnitudes would be a sharp departure from the anemic levels witnessed in contemporary American politics. In the nation's most recent elections only about two-thirds of the voting age population were registered to vote and only slightly more than half bothered to cast a ballot in presidential election years (it was 55.9% in 1992). It is data like this that helped create the climate for congressional enactment of the National Voter Registration Reform Act of 1993, often known as the “motor voter” bill.

As we will show, achieving significantly higher levels of electoral participation are possible, but this particular reform bill is not the likely vehicle. Further, we will demonstrate that making it very easy to register and vote may not have an obvious partisan tilt in favor of the Democrats. And contrary to some advocates of election law reform, easing access to the ballot may not significantly increase turnout among the current non-voters, who are disproportionately low income, blue collar and service workers, the unemployed minority group members, and the young.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 695 - 700
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avery, Michael. 1989. The Demobilization of American Voters. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Bennett, Stephen, and Resnick, David. 1990. “The Implications of Nonvoting for Democracy in the United States.” American Journal of Political Science 34: 771–802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvert, Jerry, and Gilchrist, Jack. 1993a. “The Social and Issue Dimensions of Voting and Nonvoting in Recent U.S. Elections.” Southeastern Political Review, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Calvert, Jerry, and Gilchrist, Jack. 1993b. “Do the Rules Count? Election Law Reform and Voter Turnout in the 1988 Election.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Congressional Record. 1993. 103rd Cong., 1st sess., March 4 and 11.Google Scholar
Creating the Opportunity. 1987. Washington: Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.Google Scholar
Crocker, Royce. 1987. Voter Participation Statistics from Recent Elections in Selected Countries. Washington: Congressional Research Service.Google Scholar
Crocker, Royce. 1990. Voter Registration and Turnout in States with Mail and Motor-Voter Registration Systems. Washington: Congressional Research Service.Google Scholar
Crotty, William. 1991. “Political Participation: Mapping the Terrain.” In Political Participation and American Democracy, ed. Crotty, William. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Fleury, Christopher. 1992. “Explaining Voter Registration in the American States.” Midsouth Political Science Journal 13: 252–65.Google Scholar
Gray, Virginia, and Eisinger, Peter. 1991. American States and Cities. New York: Harper-Collins.Google Scholar
Growe, Joan Anderson. 1986. Minnesota Secretary of State, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules & Administration Hearing on S2061, March 30.Google Scholar
Hill, Kim, and Leighley, Jan. 1992. “The Policy Consequences of Class Bias in State Electorates.” American Journal of Political Science 36:351–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, Deborah. 1987. “Voter Registration: A Restriction on the Fundamental Right to Vote.” Yale Law Journal 96:1615–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuttner, Robert. 1987. The Life of the Party: Democratic Prospects in 1988 and Beyond. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Minnesota Election Statistics. 1950–1990.Google Scholar
Minnesota Election Results 1992: Presidential Primary Election, State Primary Election and State General Election. 1993.Google Scholar
New York Times, 17 June 1992, 3 March 1993, 8 March 1993.Google Scholar
Patterson, Samuel. 1989. “The Persistence of State Parties.” In The State of the States, ed. Horn, Carl E. Van. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Petrocik, John. 1987. “Voter Turnout and Electoral Preference, the Anomalous Reagan Elections.” In Elections in America, ed. Schlozman, Kay Lehman. Boston: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Petrocik, John, and Shaw, Daron. 1991. “Nonvoting in America: Attitudes in Context.” In Political Participation and American Democracy, ed. Crotty, William. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Piven, Francis Fox, and Cloward, Richard. 1988a. Why Americans Don't Vote. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Piven, Francis Fox, and Cloward, Richard. 1988b. “National Voter Registration: How It Might Be Won.” PS: Political Science & Politics 21:868–75.Google Scholar
Pomper, Gerald. 1989. The Elections of 1988. Chatham: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Shaffer, Stephen. 1982. “The Policy Differences Between Voters and Non-Voters in American Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 35:496–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill, Wolfinger, Raymond, and Glass, David. 1987. “Residential Mobility and Voter Turnout.” American Political Science Review 81:45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teixeira, Ruy. 1989. “Registration and Turnout.” Public Opinion 11:12–13, 56–58.Google Scholar
Teixeira, Ruy. 1992. The Disappearing American Voter. Washington: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1991. 1990 Age, Nativity, and Citizenship for the United States, States and Counties. CPH-L-114. Washington: Bureau of the Census.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1993. Voting and Registration in the Election of November, 1992. P-20, No. 466. Washington: Bureau of the Census.Google Scholar
U.S. General Accounting Office. 1990. Voting: Some Procedural Changes and Informational Activities Could Increase Turnout. GAO PEND 91-1. Washington: General Accounting Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. House. 1993. National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Conference Report 103-66.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. Senate. 1993. Committee on Rules and Administration. National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Report 103-6.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. Senate. 1986. Committee on Rules and Administration Hearing. Testimony of Joan Anderson Growe, Minnesota Secretary of State. S. Rept. S2061.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney. 1993. “Citizen Activity: Who Participates? What Do They Say?” American Political Science Review 87: 303–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, and Nie, Norman. 1972. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond, and Rosenstone, Steve. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar