Why Don Eligible Voters Actually Vote?
Ask non-voters why they don’t vote, and you get lots of excuses – generally poor ones. Standard refrains include that the ballots and issues are complex and confusing, that it’s not convenient, that the person didn’t register in time, or that the person didn’t like any of the candidates. What’s to blame for the increasing failure of eligible voters to vote? Political scientists have pointed to everything from the decline of political parties, which once got voters out to the polls, to the rise of negative campaign advertising, which turns voters off. Studies also show that those states that permit voter registration as late as election day have higher voting results. Following the November 2000 election in an earlier column, I looked in depth at the problem of the vanishing voter. There, I concluded the primary reason people do not vote is that they do not perceive it as being in their self-interest. If there is nothing in it for them, why bother? Most voters likely have never consider
