#Democracy 3 apathetic electorate full

Transforming Interested Bystanders and Modernizing Voting Practices Misinformation makes them distrust the election system and lose confidence that their voices will be heard. Those who hear misinformation and resultantly change their voting behaviors are not apathetic. In our interviews with New York City voters in 2020, stories from all the way across the country in Orange County, California about unauthorized ballot drop boxes made them anxious about whether newly introduced drop boxes in their city were safe to use. Rick Hasen points out that “stuck in the middle of these voting wars are the voters themselves, who have become more polarized” as a result. Social media and online news have no boundaries, so news travels widely. People who give up because they are stumped by legalese are not apathetic they are shut out of the process.Ĭulture and communication also have a role to play.

Maybe if people could understand what they would be voting for, they would be more willing to vote. Our research on the complexity of signature forms on ballot envelopes shows how easily we could change this if we only had the will (and legislative authority) to write everything in plain language. Election information uses arcane terminology and legal jargon. When we read election information, we understand why people feel excluded. If he feels under-prepared, how many others feel even more so? Feeling unprepared is not the same as being uninterested. Here is someone who cares about elections, teaches the next generation, and lives in a state that mails a voter guide to every voter. One high school social studies teacher in California told us about teaching his students to understand what’s on their ballots, but he concluded that he himself never felt that he had enough information to feel confident voting on some of the issues come Election Day. But we don’t believe that-they may be confused, disheartened, angry at being excluded, or simply discouraged, but they are not apathetic. Those voters-and so many others in our civic design research over the years-are likely to be exactly the sort of people who are accused of being apathetic. Isn’t that more likely to increase polarization than to reduce it? So much diversity of opinion was lost, preventing advocates and campaigns from considering them. Early reports also suggest that those rejected ballots were disproportionately from communities of color. Here, voters made an effort to request a ballot, mark it, and mail it in. But in a recent Texas primary election, nearly 25,000 absentee ballots (approximately 12% of the ballots) were rejected. Too often, people who don’t vote are called apathetic. The Guise of Voter Apathy and Disinterest Instead of one group of habitual voters and die-hard partisans at the ends of a political spectrum, we must invite a more comprehensive range of perspectives and opinions. Rather than simply inviting more voters from a single category, we must invite every community. We must actively invite everyone to participate by running elections that give everyone equal access. Advocates for ranked-choice voting believe that it encourages more people to vote and produces greater campaign civility because candidates have to appeal to supporters of their opponents to gain a place in the ranking.īut to reach 100% democracy, we have to do more than remove barriers. Similarly, arguments for ranked-choice voting claim that it allows voters to make more nuanced decisions about candidates, rather than focusing entirely on who they predict will win in a polarized battle. Those who argue for Australian-style required voting, or “civic duty voting”, believe it will change the nature of election campaigns by turning out the base to appeal to a wider audience.

#Democracy 3 apathetic electorate full

Dionne and Miles Rapoport call the idea of full participation “ 100% democracy.” It is an aspiration to the ideals of American democracy.

Approaches to Achieving Full Participation Those legacies live on today, meaning we have never heard everyone’s voice in our elections. Even voter registration was introduced in the 1800s based on fears of newer, poorer Americans. Policies using literacy tests, felony disenfranchisement, and racial gerrymandering are shamefully aimed to create unequal access to voting. Even after the 15th and 19th Amendments gave citizens of all races, colors, and genders the right to vote, politicians passed new laws to roll back access to the polls. Making Democracy Robust with 100% Voter Turnoutįor so much of American history, the right to vote has been restricted-limited to landowners, to white people, and to men.