What can be done to improve voter turn out? Especially the young, less educated, and the poor?

Question

OK or in general what can be done to help improve voter turn out

Answer 1

it is probably not discussed in the family setting b/c they are uneducated. thats just the way things are. those care will inform themselves and do what it takes. yes more can be done.

Answer 2

Someone suggested making election day a national holiday. I believe that would actually decrease voter turnout. Most of the people who don't vote, and many who do, would not bother to leave home if they didn't have to go to work. The area where I live has a "Youth to the Booth" program to encourage young people to get involved in elections. High school students get time off school to work at the polls. They also get paid the same as other election workers. As for less educated, I vote for educating them about government works. If they don't understand the issues, I would prefer they don't vote. If they do understand the issue, I doubt they will need to be encouraged to vote.

Answer 3

Taking into consideration the previous answers, I have concluded that primarily the workplaces and secondarily the community gathering places (religious and other) known to be filled with the uneducated poor would be the best place to target their votership. The places where the young, less educated, and poor buy their food and goods- a different overall set of places than for people with different demographics- would also be a good spot. Obviously, someone who wants votes is not interested in appealing to the smartest voters with all of his or her resources!

Answer 4

There is a LOT of cynicism in the communities that you mention that their votes have a chance of being actually counted, especially in light of recent history. The intent of HAVA was hijacked. There IS no alternative but to have a 100% accurate vote count 100% of the time, spending and doing WHATEVER it takes to get there. Repukes have been ACTIVELY doing voter suppression among those groups and the most egregious of these has to be dealt with more criminal penalties and the tossing out of elections for revote. Down with Dictator Dumbya!!!

Answer 5

Why would anyone want a greater turnout from the less educated?
What do they know about issues?
Most of the less educated that I know just blindly pull the democratic lever because their great grandpappy was a democrat.
Remember the tag Yellow Dog Democrat.
That came from people that said I would rather vote for a Yellow Dog if he was the Democratic candidate.
Sounds like a lot of wisdom, and they should choose what is best for this country?
What do they know about economic issues?
What do they know about geo-political issues?

Answer 6

There should be a law passed that only allows people to vote that can pass a test that would determine if they have knowledge of the issues. Slapping fingers and seeing which one hurts is not a way to choose people to lead our Govt. They should also be tax payers, people who don't contribute should not be deciding how my tax money is spent.

Some will say that voting is "a right"... guess what.. NO IT IS NOT, IT is a Privilege.

Answer 7

To improve voter turnout, we need to make it easier to register and to vote. Any individual factor only adds a little bit to turnout, but added together, the numerous impediments to voting add up to the low voter turnout we see today.

For example: Why do we need to register in advance? In my state, Massachusetts, we must register 20 days in advance to be eligible to vote. Those 20 days prior to the election are the period in which most people are interested in the election! So we're saying, "You cannot register to vote when you are interested in voting -- you need to decide BEFORE you are interested". In Minnesota, where they have same-day registration (you can register to vote at the polls on election day), voter turnout increased by 5% immediately -- especially among young people. The reason that elected officials avoid same-day registration is that it hurts incumbents and helps outsider candidates -- like Jesse Ventura winning the Minnesota governorship primarily because of the surge of young people voting with same-day registration.

For another example: The Congressional Republicans propose that we require valid ID to vote. Now, I've served as an election officer for many years, and individuals cheating with their identity has simply never been a problem. The proposed voter ID requirement would be an additional impediment to voting. In particular, the Republicans like this impediment because it mostly affects poor people, who have much less access to valid ID than middle-class people -- and poor people overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

The Democrats are by no means innocent of placing impediments to voting. All incumbents would prefer that FEWER people vote -- because they can get THEIR supporters out to vote, whereas new voters are unpredictable and not beholden to the incumbent. The basic problem of voter turnout is because the people making the laws WANT low voter turnout.

Other impediments include:

* Why do we vote on Tuesday? People go to work on Tuesdays -- voter turnout would increase on weekends.

* Why do we require voting in your home town? People who commute would be more likely to vote near their workplace. In many states, it is illegal to vote by mail or absentee if you are in state on election day at all -- so commuters MUST commute home to vote.

* Why do we require voting on just one day? Many countries allow absentee voting days or weeks in advance. Oregon has instituted that for all elections -- with a concomitant increase in voter turnout.

Each individual impediment doesn't sound like a big impediment, but each one reduces voter turnout by a couple of percent. You add them all up, and you get the result of the low voter turnout that we see.

Answer 8

Election Day should be a national holiday, no doubt about it. Isn't voting one of our most precious rights? Isn't it the foundation of our government? Or is some made up Pagan holiday, Christmas?

Answer 9

You know something? I'm not all that sure encouraging the less educated, less experienced people to vote is such a great idea.

Answer 10

offer them free ipods and/or alcohol.

by the way, I agree with DON's answer (two above me).


Why in the world would you want people who don't understand issues to vote on them?