Author: Scotty Hendricks / Source: Big Think
- Americans vote at a lower rate than the citizens of other Western Democracies, with measurable effects on our policy outcomes.
- Several studies show that polices supported by voters are enacted at a higher rate than ones supported by non-voters; despite popular misconceptions.
- Learning that voting could have noticable effects may come as a pleasant surprise to the more cynical of non-voters.
Voter turnout in the United States is pretty low compared to other industrialized countries. While the 2016 US presidential election saw a 56% turnout rate, the 2017 general election in the UK had a 69% turnout rate. Iceland and New Zealand had turnout rates of nearly 90% in recent elections.
While various explanations of why rates are so low and proposals of how to improve them have been floating around for years, rarely do we ask what would happen if the voter turnout rates here reached the levels of our more engaged counterparts. Luckily, some studies are here to help.
What would happen if everybody voted?
Older research into American elections concluded that the demographics of voters and non-voters were similar and that higher voter turnout would have no noticeable effects as a result. However, more modern research has debunked this notion.
Given the demographics of who votes and who doesn’t, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab concluded that “voters in national elections are more likely to be Republican and to oppose redistributive social policies than non-voters. Differences between voters and non-voters on other issues such as foreign policy are much less pronounced.”
If everybody voted, we would likely see different policies than we see today. A report by Sean McElwee demonstrates this rather clearly. In it, we see…
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