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Voter
turnout rose sharply in the 2004 election, reaching its
highest level since 1968. According to the Shorenstein
Center’s post-election Vanishing Voter national survey,
first-time voters accounted for a large share of the
increase.
First-time Voters
Issues
fueled the turnout increase in 2004. Pre-election polls
indicated that most Americans felt that the election of
2004 was the most important in years. Indeed, a large
majority of both first-time voters (92 percent) and
repeat voters (86 percent) cited election issues as a
driving force in their decision to vote. Both groups,
and first-time voters particularly, were also motivated
by their dislike of a particular candidate. Half of the
repeat voters and nearly two-thirds of the first-time
voters said they voted in part “because I really
disliked one of the candidates.”
The
greatest difference in the turnout decisions of
first-time voters and repeat voters was the impact of
personal contact. Compared with repeat voters,
first-time voters were substantially less likely (78
percent vs. 96 percent) to claim that “it is a citizen’s
duty to vote in every election.” Personal contact helped
overcome their weaker sense of civic duty. Three times
as many first-time voters—61 percent vs. 21 percent—said
that a reason they voted was because “my family or
friends encouraged me to vote.”
The
numerous get-out-the-vote efforts by groups and
luminaries during the 2004 campaign also made a
difference on Election Day. Compared with repeat voters,
first-time voters were more likely to say (14 percent
vs. 4 percent) that a reason they voted was that “a
group or organization helped me register to vote.” They
were also more likely to say (7 percent vs. 2 percent)
they became interested “because so many celebrities were
encouraging people to vote.” Americans who had been
eligible to vote in previous presidential elections but
voted for the first time this year mentioned the latter
reason most frequently. Roughly one in seven—14
percent—of these first-time voters said that celebrity
involvement affected their decision to cast a ballot.
Non-Voters
Although turnout was up sharply in 2004, tens of
millions of vote-eligible Americans did not vote on
Election Day. A fourth of these non-voters said that
they have virtually no interest in voting.
Some of
those who expressed interest in voting but did not vote
this time gave reasons that indicate they would be hard
to lure to the polls in almost any case. Eighteen
percent of the interested non-voters said they are
disgusted with politics. Fourteen percent said they find
politics befuddling. Mobility also affected turnout. One
in five of the interested non-voters said they didn’t
have any way to get to the polls.
Other
reasons cited by non-voters who expressed interest in
voting suggest that changes in election law would
encourage higher turnout. For example, 32 percent of the
interested non-voters said they had moved recently and
hadn’t yet reregistered. In many democracies,
registration is renewed automatically when a registered
voter moves to a new residence. America’s registration
system, which places the burden of registration on the
individual rather than, as in Europe, on officials,
depresses turnout in other ways, too. One in eight of
non-voters with an interest in voting said they simply
do not know how to go about registering.
Some of
the ballot-related issues raised by the news media also
depressed turnout. Six percent of the interested
non-voters said they had thought they were registered
but found out otherwise when they went to the polls.
Three percent said they were discouraged from voting
because they worried that their right to vote would be
challenged if they went to the polls. Six percent said
they planned to vote but then discovered that the lines
at their polling place were excessively long.
Although it is difficult to estimate precisely the
combined effect of these various factors, there is
little question that several million more Americans
would have cast a ballot on Election Day if the
country’s registration and voting system were more
welcoming.
Click
here to see
data tables.
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