Worth Reading
27 October 2000
The Voter Apathy Puzzle
During every
major election, analysts, politicos, pundits, and op-ed writers
all pause to consider voter apathy. And about now, local campus papers
are publishing activist students' letters to the editor urging their peers
to vote. Local chapters of Young Democrats and Republicans are likely sponsoring
information booths in student centers. Yet for all that energy on campus,
polls and surveys indicate an overwhelming majority of voters aged 18-24
won't vote at all. Is it apathy? Does it matter when people don't vote?
The following essays examine voter apathy from a variety of perspectives
and can help you address it as a topic for thinking and writing in your
class.
Apathy Inc.
This short
piece by John Nichols from the October 1998 Progressive, a liberal
journal, describes Republican Party strategies in the '98 elections for
reducing voter turnout. Elections, the article asserts, are less exercises
in democratic idealism and more about getting voters who agree with you
to vote while lowering the likelihood that those who won't support you
will stay home. Generally speaking, Nichols says, lower turnouts favor
conservative candidates and positions. While this article focuses on Republican
strategies, certainly both parties work at strategies for keeping the other
side's voters from caring. The article can be found at http://www.progressive.org/nichols9810.htm.
Discussion Question: Does this type of strategy make a winning candidate necessarily less beholden to all the citizens of his
or her district?
Who Cares about Voter Apathy?
Writing in
Intellectual Capitol, which describes itself as "a weekly, bipartisan,
public policy e-zine available only on the World Wide Web," Bill Bishop
surveys the different current theories on low voter turnout. Bishop doesn't
come up with the explanation for low turnout, suggesting instead
that the issues a democratic society faces--and the system for facing them--are
too complex to be simply assessed. His full article, which includes a link
to Harvard's Vanishing Voter Project Web site, can be found at http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue373/item9284.asp.
Discussion Question: Bishop quotes a businessman who says it's relatively easy to figure out a business plan for making money, but
it's very difficult to solve complex social problems. If this is so, what
is the business of government and what role should--or could--higher voter
turnout during elections play in deciding how the government attends to
its business? Will more voters voting, as an extension of the public will,
make government better able to solve complex social problems?
Campaign 2000: Voter Apathy
The Daily
Camera, a Boulder, Colorado news outlet, offers a collection of articles
and news stories that touch on voter apathy. Among the stories archived
is an Associated Press report of an MTV survey that says young people are
turned off by the election. This and other stories can be found at http://www.thedailycamera.com/extra/campaign/apathy.html.
Discussion Question: Is the MTV survey finding that's summarized in a story on this page an accurate reflection of you and your
friends' views on the current election?
Voter Apathy Doesn't Bode Well for Next President
This piece
by Tom Teepen, a reporter for Cox News, a collection of smaller, local
newspapers, appeared on January 7, 2000, during the heat of the primary
campaigns. Teepen argues that low voter turnout and interest makes it hard
for a candidate to establish and declare a mandate for governing, which
makes it easier for the political opposition to stall initiatives, which
leads to partisan snipping and vitriol, which disgusts voters, which reduces
voter turnout, which reduces mandates, which . . . you get the picture.
Teepen notes how much is really at stake in the current election, and wonders
what can be done to energize voters. His thoughts are available at http://www.coxnews.com/2000/columnists/teepen/010700_teepen.html.
Discussion Question: Does a mandate need to depend upon a larger voter turn out or a large margin of victory, regardless of turnout?
Is voter turnout a red herring where declaring a mandate is concerned?
Candidates Earn Voter Apathy
Emory Curtis,
a columnist for politicallyblack.com, argues that because politicians
don't address issues he and other urban voters care about, and because
political advertising techniques and messages are focused on swing voters
and nonurban issues, there's not much reason for many urban people to vote.
For his argument, go to http://www.politicallyblack.com/opinion_a80200.htm.
Discussion Question: Young people make the same argument in the MTV survey. They're not voting, they say, because the candidates
aren't addressing issues they care about. Why can't voters care about an
election without having a particular issue addressed? If people only get
motivated when they see a direct connection to a vested interest, is that
likely to make them a better, more concientious voter than someone who
votes only because they think they should?
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