An Expanding Electorate

States extended the franchise, or right to vote, to white working-class men much earlier than most countries did, but for decades, only property-owning white males had been able to vote. Only a handful of these political elites decided the first presidential election. The Constitution originally called for state legislatures to appoint electors who then later elected the president in an electoral college. On a designated day, every states electors met in their capitals to cast votes for president. There was no popular vote for George Washington, but every one of the 69 electors cast their first ballots for Washington. By the 1800 presidential election, five of 16 states expanded participation by using popular elections to name the electors, and by 1823 all states allowed for popular selection of electors.

State governments typically did not grant suffrage, or qualifications for voting, equally. The Constitution forbade religious tests for federal office but did not prevent such tests in determining who could vote. In addition to early religious tests, states imposed property requirements and poll taxes. ‘They also barred women, African Americans, and immigrants from the political process. Courageous activists worked for more than 100 years to persuade states to alter voting practices, create equitable voting laws, and ratify amendments to extend suffrage. Until they were enfranchised, citizens participated in politics in the only channels available to them–through protest and expression of opinion in other ways.

Voter participation continued to grow in the 1830s. President Andrew Jackson, a popular leader and advocate for expanding suffrage to all white men, was influential in increasing citizen participation. Jackson didn’t come from wealth or privilege and embodied the common man. He bravely rose through military ranks and through Congress to become the seventh president of the United States. He called for the end of the property requirement to vote.

During and after Jackson’s presidency (1829-1837), universal male suffrage became a reality, greatly increasing voter turnout. In 1824, four candidates had tallied a collective 350,671 votes. Four years later the popular vote total reached 1,155,350. By 1830, almost all states had removed the property requirement.

North Carolina was the last state to abandon property requirements in 1856.

Suffrage Amendments

By the 1860s, America had yet to give the franchise to African Americans, women, and other minorities. That situation changed with the passage of three constitutional amendments: the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth. Two other amendments, the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth, extended suffrage further, allowing residents of the nation’s capital to vote for the president and outlawing poll taxes, respectively.

African American Suffrage

As suffrage expanded in its first phase, legislatures and groups of people discussed the potential for free African Americans to vote. In the 1830s, six northern states permitted African Americans to vote. After the North defeated the South in the Civil War in 1865, Congress passed the Reconstruction Amendments, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth. The Thirteenth Amendment freed the enslaved, and the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship and guaranteed legal protection. The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American males the right to vote and was the first constitutional mandate affecting state voting requirements.

The Fifteenth Amendment, like the other amendments, passed through a northern-dominated Congress without southern support and was initially enforced during Reconstruction when African Americans voted in large numbers. The Union Army’s continued presence in the former Confederacy ensured that African Americans could vote, and several were elected to public office. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won a disputed presidential election and soon after withdrew Union troops from the South. A decade later, as the era of Jim Crow began, southern legislatures segregated their citizens and established loopholes to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment. White citizens, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, intimidated and abused African Americans to turn them away from the polls.

Structural Barriers

Several southern states denied African Americans suffrage with property or literacy requirements. Several states elevated the literacy test into their state constitutions. The poll tax—a simple fee required to vote—became one of the most effective ways to discourage the potential black voter. And the grandfather clause, which allowed states to recognize a registering voter as it would have recognized his grandfather, prevented scores of African Americans from voting, while it allowed illiterate and poor whites to circumvent the literacy test and poll tax requirements.

These state-level loopholes suppressed the black vote but never explicitly violated the letter of the Constitution because they never prevented someone from voting, “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

The impact can be demonstrated by change in registered black voters in Louisiana. Historian C. Vann Woodward reveals that in 1896, the state had 130,334 registered black voters, who outnumbered registered white voters in 26 parishes (counties). By 1900, white voters dominated every parish, and by 1904, only 1,342 African Americans were on the poll books and registered to vote. The white primary, too, became a popular method for southern states to keep African Americans from voting. State Democratic Party organizations set rules for their primaries, defining their membership as white men’s clubs. By 1915, thirteen southern states had established the white primary. A generation of intimidation, lynching, and a host of public policies to prevent African Americans from voting resulted in a steady decline in turnout that began as soon as the Union pulled out of the South. Black voting reached an all-time low in the 1920s.

Progress Through Law

The framers had also endorsed the elite model of democracy (see Topic 1.2) by calling for the election of senators by state legislatures. However, with the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, popular elections for senators became the law of the land. With this change, the two federal senators from each state began to pay more attention to how citizen-voters in their state regarded them.

The growing quest for equality and the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement brought the greatest increases in African American turnout in a century. Some inroads to making the Fifteenth Amendment a reality had been made earlier. In 1915, in Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled the grandfather clause unconstitutional. In 1944, the Court declared the white primary a violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause in Smith v. Allwright. One estimate of southern black registration before and after the white primary shows a statewide increase from 151,000 to 595,000 registered voters. Southern black voter turnout increased from 4.5 percent in 1940 to 12.5 percent in 1947. The Democratic Party included a pro-civil rights plank in its 1948 platform that called for equal treatment regardless of race, creed, or color. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s caused greater increases in voter participation following key congressional acts, additional Supreme Court rulings, and one more constitutional amendment.

Women’s Suffrage

The push for women’s suffrage began in the mid-1800s. Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah were among the first states to admit women to the polls. In the late 1800s, women entered the workplace and, later, in World War I, served the nation on the home front. Women’s suffrage became a national reality with ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Activists had worked hard and courageously to secure the amendment’s passage. Susan B. Anthony became a leading suffragist. She spoke at political conventions and helped organize different associations. In 1872, in direct violation of New York law, she walked into a polling place and cast a vote. She was tried and convicted by an all-male jury.

Suffragists continued the fight. By 1914, eleven states allowed women to vote. In the 1916 election, both major political parties endorsed the concept of women’s suffrage in their platforms, and Montana elected the first woman to Congress, Jeanette Rankin. Women’s groups picketed the White House to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to get behind the cause. He finally supported the amendment, and it was ratified in 1920. Females became more and more accustomed to voting and became active participants in politics.

Rounding Out the Electorate

By the late 1950s, American values on democracy and defining who could vote were only partially set. Real political participation for suppressed African Americans, newly involved women, and younger people had yet to emerge. Additionally, the seat of the nation’s capital had exploded in population but still lacked state status and votes in the presidential contest. Some powerful legislation and three more amendments would round out the U.S. electorate.

The 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first such bill since Reconstruction, addressed discrimination in voter registration and established the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, an enforcement agency in the Justice Department. Before World War II, about 3 percent of the South’s black voting-age populace was registered. In 1964, statewide averages varied from 6 to 66 percent, averaging 36 percent.

The expansive 1964 Civil Rights Act also addressed voting. (See Topic 3.11.) That same year, Congress proposed and the states ratified the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which outlawed poll taxes in federal elections. By the time the amendment was introduced in Congress in 1962, only four states still charged such a tax. The Supreme Court later ruled taxes on any election, such as state and local elections, unconstitutional because they violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act was the most effective bill to bring the black populace into the political process. This act outlawed literacy tests and put states with low voter turnout under the watchful eye of the Justice Department. The law gave the department jurisdiction over states that had any type of voting test and less than 50 percent turnout in the 1964 election. These states would be subject to federal election examiners and the pre-clearance provision of the act’s Section Five. The pre-clearance provision put these states under federal supervision if they attempted to invent new, legal loopholes to diminish black suffrage, such as moving polling places or gerrymandering. By 1967, black voter registration in six southern states increased from about 30 to more than 50 percent. African Americans soon held office in greater numbers. The original law expired in 1971, but Congress has renewed the Voting Rights Act several times since.

Recently, the pre-clearance provision landed in the Supreme Court. Shelby County, Alabama, challenged the 1965 point of law, and the Court declared in a 5:4 decision that this section of the law imposes burdens that are no longer responsive to current conditions. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act (and the Reauthorization Act in 2006) because of the burdens placed on states. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, “And voter registration and turnout numbers in the covered States have risen dramatically in the years since [the 2006 Voting Rights Act Reauthorization]. Racial disparity in those numbers was compelling evidence justifying the pre-clearance remedy and the coverage formula. There is no longer such a disparity.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a comparison of the Court’s decision in her dissent, stating that “throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

The District of Columbia

The Electoral College system awards each state the same number of electors that it has senators and representatives. Washington, DC, is not a state and had no electors until passage of the Twenty-third Amendment (1961). The founding fathers were concerned about the potential political influence of those living in and near the nation’s capital. Delegates at the constitutional convention feared the advantages a state might gain if it also housed the capital city. The Constitution therefore empowers Congress to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District… [to] become the Seat of the Government of the United States.” After short terms in New York City and Philadelphia, the national capital moved to Washington, DC, on a parcel of land (the Constitution mandated that it not exceed 10 square miles) ceded by Virginia and Maryland. The town’s permanent population remained small for decades, but as the role of government and the size of the town grew, the permanent population of citizens desired representation.

The Twenty-third Amendment provides that the District shall appoint electors, but never more than those of the smallest state so that the District never has stronger influence than the smallest state. The Constitution, however, does not give this District “state” status, and therefore it has no voting representatives in the House or the Senate and no presidential electors. Delegates from Washington, DC, cannot introduce or vote on legislation but can vote at the committee level. (According to the U.S. Census the nation’s least populous state, Wyoming, has 544,270 residents represented by three total members to Congress and three electoral votes. The District of Columbia has 599,657 residents with no voting representation in Congress.) In 1964, the first national election in which its residents could exercise their right to vote, the District voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson, and it has voted for the Democratic candidate every year since.

Young Adults

Most states used to require voters to be 21 years old, while four states allowed 18-year-olds to vote. In the post-World War I years, however, a move to enfranchise 18-year-olds gained momentum. The president and Congress had sent scores of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old draftees to Vietnam, most of whom had no right to vote for president or Congress. In 1970, Congress passed amendments to the 1965 Voting Rights Act that lowered the national voting age to 18 for presidential and congressional elections. States challenged the new law in the Supreme Court based on reserved powers. The Court narrowly ruled that Congress did have the authority to set a voting age on federal elections but not for state and local offices. This ruling prompted Congress to propose and the states to ratify the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which prevents states from denying citizens 18 and over the right to vote, in July 1971.

The rapid ratification of the measure with strong majorities in each state put younger citizens on the road to voting. President Nixon proclaimed that some 11 million young men and women who “have participated in the life of our nation through their work, their studies, and their sacrifices for its defense now are to be fully included in the electoral process of our country.

Voting Models

The decision-making process voters use when choosing a candidate can be influenced by several models. All of these models affect voting behavior with various levels of influence.

Rational-Choice Voting

A voter who has examined an issue or candidate, evaluated campaign promises or platform points, and consciously decided to vote in the way that seems to most benefit the voter is following the rational-choice voting model. What matters most to one rational-choice voter might mean much less to another voter. One voter might approach the voting booth with his or her own individual interests atop her priority list -who will help me obtain medical care, for example-while another could act out of concern for a larger group, posing such questions as, “What is best for America?” or “What is best for our schools?”

Either way, rational-choice voters have consciously decided what choice would most directly affect them or represents their values, and they vote accordingly. A retiring citizen about to collect Social Security votes for the candidate promising to protect the Social Security system. A young voter might have a genuine interest in securing retirees’ quality of life, and though this issue has little direct implication on this voter’s life, he or she may rationally choose to vote with that issue as a priority based on values of security for elders.

Analysts point out that sometimes people vote against their self-interest to support larger issues. For example, Donald Trump gained much support from the non-college educated, wage-earning voters. Critics point out that the president’s policies flowering the marginal tax rate and deregulating businesses will possibly harm these voters. If those voters made their choice based on concerns about immigration and protection for the Second Amendment rather than their economic interests, they still made their own rational choice.

Retrospective Voting

Citizens who apply the retrospective voting model look backward to consider candidates’ track records. If the race for local office includes an incumbent, the voter will assess the official seeking reelection and his or her accomplishments while in office before deciding. If the race is for an open seat, the voter will likely consider the incumbent party’s recent track record, or maybe the challenging candidates’ accomplishments or shortcomings in previous offices.

If Republicans are in control of Congress and the White House, and a bad economy ensues on their watch, a retrospective independent voter will likely cast his vote for the Democrats.

Prospective Voting

In contrast, using prospective voting, citizens anticipate the future. They consider how candidates or proposed ballot initiatives might affect their lives or the operation of government. For example, casinos and gambling companies have recently backed efforts to alter gambling laws and to legalize casinos in several states. Prospective voters, looking ahead, see the prospect of new jobs and increased tax revenues and decide on that basis to support legalizing gaming.

In the 2020 democratic primary, amidst a crowded field of contenders, the choice came down to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden. As he did in his run in 2016, Sanders campaigned on working toward “Medicare for all” free tuition at public colleges, and a $15 minimum wage. Joe Biden campaigned on building on the work of the Obama administration, including expanding affordable health care, and making change incrementally rather than in the dramatic way envisioned by the Sanders campaign. Both gained millions of backers who were trying to choose the candidate with a vision for the future they supported. When the tide clearly shifted to Biden, Sanders dropped out of the race to unite the party.

Party-Line Voting

Citizens who affiliate with a political party or hold a strong party loyalty will likely vote with that party at most opportunities. In some states, voters register with a party; in others there is no legal state-level affiliation. All partisans have various levels of loyalty or strength of relationship with their party, but when one “self-identifies” with a party, acknowledging membership or openly referring to himself or herself as a Democrat or Republican, then chances are good he or she will vote for that party. This party identification, rather than party registration, is the easiest way to predict a voter’s habits. According to the 2016 CNN exit poll, 89 percent of Democrats voted for Clinton; 90 percent of Republicans voted for Trump.

Other Factors: Candidates and Issues

Party loyalists are occasionally drawn to a candidate from the other team. A voter may consider the track record of the incumbent while simultaneously considering the promises of the challenger, using both retrospective and prospective thinking. Another impact on the voter’s selection is the personality, integrity, or competence of a candidate. In fact, in candidate-centered campaigns (see Topic 5.4) rather than in those focusing on party loyalty, the campaign will often forgo the party label or refrain from printing “Democrat” or “Republican” on their yard signs or including such information in their commercials. Instead, the emphasis might be on the candidate’s military service or successes at managing a business before entering a campaign.

The candidate’s character may also be a factor in how a voter decides to cast a ballot. In 2017, for example, Alabama held a special election to fill a Senate seat left vacant when President Donald Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general. The Republican candidate, Judge Roy Moore, received an endorsement from President Trump, and the state of Alabama had voted solidly for Trump in the 2016 election and solidly Republican for 20 years. However, Moore’s defiance of court orders and allegations of sexual abuse turned public opinion against him.

Even the other Republican senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, said he would not vote for Moore. Democrat Doug Jones, with an exemplary character and a strong record – including securing convictions against Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four children – won a close victory. The African American vote played a decisive role.

The most important political issues of the day also have an influence on how citizens choose to cast their votes. For “pocketbook” voters, the economy is often at the top of the list. If the nation is in an economic downturn, the incumbent is usually held responsible for it, so votes tend to go for the challenger. If a challenger from a party other than a voter’s preference has a good idea for improving the economy, the candidate’s position on that issue can sway the vote.

Voter Turnout

Other Factors: Candidates and Issues

Party loyalists are occasionally drawn to a candidate from the other team. A voter may consider the track record of the incumbent while simultaneously considering the promises of the challenger, using both retrospective and prospective thinking. Another impact on the voter’s selection is the personality, integrity, or competence of a candidate. In fact, in candidate-centered campaigns (see Topic 5.4) rather than in those focusing on party loyalty, the campaign will often forgo the party label or refrain from printing “Democrat” or “Republican” on their yard signs or including such information in their commercials. Instead, the emphasis might be on the candidate’s military service or successes at managing a business before entering a campaign.

The candidate’s character may also be a factor in how a voter decides to cast a ballot. In 2017, for example, Alabama held a special election to fill a Senate seat left vacant when President Donald Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general. The Republican candidate, Judge Roy Moore, received an endorsement from President Trump, and the state of Alabama had voted solidly for Trump in the 2016 election and solidly Republican for 20 years. However, Moore’s defiance of court orders and allegations of sexual abuse turned public opinion against him.

Even the other Republican senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, said he would not vote for Moore. Democrat Doug Jones, with an exemplary character and a strong record – including securing convictions against Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four children – won a close victory. The African American vote played a decisive role.

The most important political issues of the day also have an influence on how citizens choose to cast their votes. For “pocketbook” voters, the economy is often at the top of the list. If the nation is in an economic downturn, the incumbent is usually held responsible for it, so votes tend to go for the challenger. If a challenger from a party other than a voter’s preference has a good idea for improving the economy, the candidate’s position on that issue can sway the vote.

Influences on Voter Turnout

In November 2016, about 138 million people turned out to vote for the next president. That’s just over 60 percent of Americans who are old enough to vote. A citizen’s upbringing, political ideology, efficacy, awareness, and cultural background will influence their level of civic participation. State laws and local administration of an election, too, will affect how many people register and vote. The offices on the ballot have an impact on voter turnout.

Fewer citizens show up to vote in congressional midterm, county, municipal, and school board elections than in presidential elections. Those who identify with a political party – in other words, those who call or consider themselves Democrats or Republicans – invariably vote for candidates from that party.

Other major factors that influence voter turnout and behavior are the candidate, contemporary political issues, and the voter’s religion, ethnicity, and gender.

State and Local Administration of Elections

The number of voters who actually cast votes as a percentage of the voting-age population – everyone at or over the age of 18 – is voter turnout. During the late 19th century, voter turnout was the highest in American history, though with restrictions on race, sex, and age, those eligible to vote were a minority of the population. Some estimates show that up to 90 percent of the legal electorate voted. However, manipulation of the ballot box and fraudulent practices such as voting more than once surely skewed those estimates.

Most states require a voter to register in advance of an election and to be at least 18 years old, a citizen of the United States, a resident of the state where voting will take place, and a non-felon. States can require voter registration – enrollment in the electoral roll – 30 days in advance of the election so county boards of elections can create and maintain the voter rolls, or poll books.

States’ election laws authorize a state department, bureaucratic agency, and/or a secretary of state to oversee elections statewide. Certain customs and procedures are consistent statewide, such as voter registration guidelines, the times voting locations are open, procedures for candidates to file candidacy, and the criteria for candidates to get their names on the ballot. County or local governments conduct and oversee local elections even when the election is for federal offices.

Typically, a county-level elections board governs the election and vote-counting process and serves as a referee when controversies arise. For purposes of voting, counties, cities, and towns are subdivided into wards, which are broken into precincts. A precinct is a small geographic area of about 500-1,000 voters who all vote at an assigned polling place, often a school or community center. Its size is determined by the supervisor of elections. States can allow 17-year-olds to vote, and many do so in the primary elections if the voter will be 18 by the date of the general election in November. A state elections official oversees the process statewide, while the county-level boards of elections tabulate and report the election returns. Typically, winning candidates are known late on election night or by the following day, but election authorities do not certify the election for days or weeks while they verify the count and wait for absentee ballots to come in.

Government Policies and Voter Participation

Although states have the authority to administer elections, the federal government has passed election laws that the states must follow. For example, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993 to increase citizen participation and to alleviate the burden of having to make a special effort to register to vote. Also known as the motor-voter law, it addresses national standards and enforcement of voter registration, mail-in registration, and government agency-based registration. The law requires states to offer citizens a chance to register at state-run agencies, such as the bureaus of motor vehicles (hence the “motor-voter law” nickname). The NVRA increases the number of eligible citizens who register to vote, expands the number of locations where voters can register, and protects the integrity of elections by ensuring accurate voter rolls.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report shows that 21 percent of voters registered at a county registration office; another 21 percent did so at a motor vehicle agency. More than 13 percent mailed in their registration, and 6 percent reported registering at the polls on election day (15 states allow that) at a school, hospital, campus, or registration booth.

Federal Response to the 2000 Election

The 2000 presidential election between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore was one of the closest and most controversial elections in U.S. history. The controversial Florida recount ended with a Supreme Court ruling that stopped it because the Court said the Florida procedures violated the equal protection clause. George W. Bush became president.

Congress responded by passing the national Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA imposes a number of requirements on states, mostly to create national standards for voting and election management. All states had to upgrade their voting systems to an electronic format. The law required states to replace punch card and lever systems and provided funds for the changeover.

HAVA also addresses voting for people with disabilities. States and counties must make polling places accessible for blind people and those with physical handicaps to “ensure full participation in the electoral process.” Largely due to the confusion among Florida’s voters in 2000, the law requires states to use a voting system that allows the voter to glance at his or her choices before confirming the vote. Through this provision, voters have an opportunity to change their vote if they make a mistake.

To prevent voter fraud, registering voters must provide a driver’s license or the last four digits of a Social Security number that they must verify at the polling place on election day. The law also makes sure that military personnel serving overseas have access to absentee ballots, registration forms, and election information.

Since the 2000 election, 75 percent of the nation has changed the way it votes. Elections are now more accurate. There is less chance that voters will make mistakes and more safeguards in place if they do. Access has been expanded, and millions now vote by mail.

Voter Registration

Election schemes during the age of organized corruption in politics at the end of the 19th century brought the need for voter registration. Registration enables governments to prepare for an election, verify voter qualifications, and assign a voter to only one polling place to prevent repeat voting.

Citizens can register to vote in a few ways. At a local board of elections, any adult resident can walk in during business hours with ID and Social Security number and register. The laws discussed earlier require states to offer opportunities by mail as well. In most cases, voters can find a printable form online, complete it, and mail it in. Because of the motor-voter law, registration forms are also available at public libraries and where motorists obtain a driver’s license.

Nearly 40 states allow citizens to register online. One of the first studies examining online registration showed a per-registrant cost to the state dropping from 83 cents to 3 cents. These savings do not take into account the expensive implementation costs, but those costs will diminish over time.

A criminal record can affect one’s voting right. All but two states prevent felons from voting while in prison. Most states, however, reinstate felons’ voting rights after parole. Twelve states deny felons who committed severe crimes the right to ever vote again.

Types of Ballots

Election Day Ballots: The ballot used today, known as the Australian ballot since a version of it was first used in Australia in 1872, helps make elections fair. Some form of the Australian ballot is used in all U.S. states. The ballot must:

1. Be printed and distributed at public expense,
2. Show all qualifying candidates’ names,
3. Be available only at the polling places,
4. Be completed in private.

Sometimes registration records can be incomplete or incorrect. Citizens’ names may be purged from voting rolls after years of inactivity. Voters move residences from one precinct to another and forget to change their registration.

When discrepancies like these occur at the polling place, states offer provisional ballots. These are set aside until election officials verify that voting occurred at the correct polling place based on the voter’s registration address. When these controversies of residency or registration come up, citizens may feel questioned or partially disfranchised. But modern procedures afford a greater chance of a fair and accurate election.

Absentee Ballots: Voters can also vote by absentee ballot. If a voter cannot make it to the polls, he or she can mail a completed ballot instead. In years past, voters needed an excuse, such as illness or travel, to vote absentee. An increasing number of states have embraced no-excuse absentee and early voting.

A majority of states allow any qualified voter to cast a ballot in person during a designated period before the election. Early voting is not only convenient to the voter but also makes for easier management and vote counting on election day. Voting lines decrease, and fewer poll workers are needed. In the 2012 election, fully one-third of Americans had already voted when election day arrived.

Today, few states require in-person election day voting.

These convenience-voting changes usually bring noticeable increases in participation, followed by a leveling of voter turnout. As ProPublica reported in 2016, the research on how convenience voting has increased turnout is mixed. Some research shows that early voting has increased turnout by 2 to 4 percent. One report shows that early in-person voting actually decreased voter turnout. More consistent findings are that African American turnout has increased with early in-person voting, and that same-day voting and registration has increased turnout somewhat overall. Oregon’s automatic registration process may have been the key factor in a 4-point increase in participation and one of the top voter turnout states in the United States.

Online Voting

Scholars, technology specialists, and fiscal conservatives have put forth good points in favor of using the Internet to conduct elections online or at least as an alternative to traveling to a voting booth. Voting online would be easier for some, could lower the administration cost of elections, and could propel younger tech-savvy voters into an influential and formidable force. However, it could make obvious a “digital divide” that still partially exists in the U.S., and it could open the door to hacking and other manipulation.

Voter ID Laws

State laws requiring voters to present some form of identification at the voting booth have passed in 35 states, generally advanced by Republican majorities. Some states accept multiple forms of ID, including a utility bill or a paycheck stub. Others require government-issued photo identification. Some allow citizens to cast provisional ballots if they don’t have their IDs with them; if they return with the necessary ID, their provisional ballots can be cast.

These requirements have brought criticism and constitutional challenges. Some conservatives say the IDs are necessary to decrease the chances of voter fraud and to further guarantee accuracy in elections. Liberals and progressives, in contrast, believe Republicans are trying to set up barriers to those voters less likely to have an ID, most of whom tend to vote Democratic.

In the courts, legal challenges to photo-ID policies emphasize the way these laws disproportionately impact people of different classes. In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana voter ID statute that requires a photo ID, but since then, federal appeals courts have struck down similar laws from other states.

What is the practical impact of these measures? Are these voter ID requirements suppressing the vote? The Brennan Center for Justice reports that about 25 percent of eligible African American voters and 16 percent of Hispanics do not have IDs, compared to 9 percent of white voters. Participation among these groups has generally grown in recent years, and such laws could interfere with that growth. At the same time, voter ID laws seemed to serve as a rallying cry against voter suppression and actually help increase turnout of the groups claimed to be suppressed.

Long Lines at the Polls

Most voters wait an average of 14 minutes to cast their votes. However, 5 percent of voters—which amounts to several million people—have to wait much longer, up to two hours. Minority voters are six times as likely as whites to wait more than an hour to vote. Since their historic turnout rates have been lower than those of whites, there may be fewer voting machines and poll workers in their precincts, and those deficits slow down the voting process. For hourly workers, long wait times result in lower wages for the day. However, these long waits in line have a significant consequence beyond lost wages. One study estimates that for every hour spent in line, a voter is 1 percent less likely to vote in the next election. Long lines, then, are a voter-suppression mechanism.

Voting and Nonvoting

From 1928 to 1968, November voter turnout in presidential elections generally exceeded 60 percent. In 1972, despite a new voting bloc of young voters, turnout dipped to 57 percent amid anti-government sentiments fueled by the Vietnam War and Nixon’s Watergate scandal. This period saw weakening party loyalty and increased scrutiny of money’s role in politics, prompting Congress to regulate campaign finances. From 1972 to 2000, presidential election turnout hovered just above 50 percent of the voting-age population.

According to the U.S. Elections Project, in 2016, 59.3 percent of the voting-eligible population voted, while 54.7 percent of the voting-age population did so, including individuals ineligible due to felony convictions or other legal reasons. Registered voter turnout, however, reached about 70 percent in 2016. In the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout continued to increase, with 61.3 percent of the voting-age population casting ballots according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Type of Election

Turnout varies significantly by election type. Presidential elections typically draw the highest number of voters, followed by congressional midterm elections, which see lower turnout. For example, turnout in the 2018 midterm congressional elections was close to 50 percent of the voting-eligible population. County-level and municipal races generally have even lower turnout, ranging from 15 to 35 percent.

Reasons for Nonvoting

Some people refrain from voting due to logistical reasons such as illness or childcare issues. Others are legally excluded from voting in some states, including felons and those deemed mentally incompetent. Additionally, some individuals lack the required identification to vote under their state’s laws.

Political Efficacy

Many eligible voters choose not to vote due to voter apathy, a sense that their vote won’t impact the outcome. This lack of political efficacy can stem from past experiences supporting losing candidates or not seeing promised changes materialize after elections. Furthermore, some citizens are generally satisfied with the government and do not feel compelled to participate in elections. Given the frequency of elections in the U.S., not all citizens participate in every election, further impacting turnout. Nonvoters often engage in other forms of civic participation, such as volunteering in their communities.

Factors Influencing Voter Choice

Gender:

One of the easiest ways to divide and analyze voters is along gender lines. The gender gap is the difference in political views between men and women and how these views are expressed at the voting booth. Women tend to oppose harsh punishments and the death penalty more than men; they favor government spending on welfare; and they are less war-prone. These leanings have resulted in more women voting with the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. Men tend to believe in harsher punishments against accused criminals and are more fiscally conservative; they have a tendency to vote Republican. In 2016, 53 percent of men voted for Trump, and 41 percent voted for Clinton. For women, 54 percent voted for Clinton, and 42 percent voted for Trump.

Since the 1980 election, women have turned out to vote in slightly higher numbers than men. Married and unmarried women tend to have different voting patterns. In 2000, unmarried females strongly voted with Democrats. Single women tend to place importance on health care, employment, education, job security, and retirement benefits. In contrast, in the 2002 midterms, 56 percent of married women voted for Republicans, compared to 39 percent of unmarried women. Married women tend to be “moral traditionalists” with concerns for traditional marriage and family. In the 2016 presidential election, 56 percent of married women voters chose Trump, compared to 42 percent for Clinton. Unmarried female voters, in contrast, chose Clinton by a 62 to 35 percent margin.

Age:

Since ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971, the nation’s youngest voters have had the lowest turnout. Reasons include their undeveloped views of candidates, lack of strong views on political issues, and mobility. Yet young voter turnout and interest in politics have risen. Authors Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson found in the 2008 election that citizens in the larger bloc of 18- to 30-year-olds turned out in the highest numbers in a generation. This group is dominated by self-described liberals, 38 percent, while only 23 percent considered themselves conservative. A U.S. Census report on the 2016 election shows the 18- to 29-year-old bloc turned out at 46 percent. In contrast, senior citizens vote in reliably high numbers. This generational disparity in turnout results from older citizens having more experience and understanding of the political process, regular voting habits, and likely more at stake–property, investments, and Social Security and Medicare. Senior citizens turned out at nearly 71 percent in the 2016 election, with 52 percent voting for Trump and 45 percent for Clinton.

Race and Ethnicity

African Americans:

Minorities are increasing as a percentage of the U.S. population, and along with the increase in numbers comes an increase in political clout. However, with the exception of the 2012 presidential election, in which African American voters proportionally outnumbered white voters, turnout among minorities has stalled or declined.

The disenfranchising and intimidation of potential African American voters in the South for generations created a consistently low voter turnout among African Americans. Because the Republican Party freed enslaved people and enfranchised African Americans after the Civil War, blacks largely sided with the Republican Party during their first generation at the voting booth. By 1932, however, these voters began a relationship with the Democratic Party that only became stronger under Democratic presidents Truman, Johnson, and Obama. (See Topic 5.4.)

African Americans tend to have a less favorable view of the criminal justice system than whites. A recent University of Cincinnati poll shows that African Americans favor abolishing the death penalty by 51 percent, compared with 23 percent of white respondents. They also want less attention and money focused on international affairs and foreign policy and more on Americans in need. Upon the 2012 presidential election, the PEW Research Center estimated that 95 percent of voting-eligible African Americans voted for Democrat Barack Obama. For the first time ever, black voter turnout in 2012 surpassed that of whites; 66.2 percent of African Americans voted, compared to 64.1 percent of white voters.

African American turnout in the 2016 presidential election dropped to 59.6 percent.

Hispanics

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the United States, now numbering well over 43 million. Hispanics live in large numbers in the southwestern and western states, the Sunbelt states, New York, and Florida. Hispanic turnout rose from 2.5 million nationally in 1980 to more than 11 million in 2012. Hispanics turn out in lower percentages than whites and blacks. Hispanic participation peaked at 50 percent in 2008; in 2016 their participation was 47.6 percent.

The Latino voting population has sided with Democrats on urban, minority, and labor issues, although Cuban Americans have a history of favoring Republicans. Also, conflict over immigration laws has created a wedge between Hispanic voters and conservative lawmakers. Heightened rhetoric and a Republican desire for strict citizenship requirements have driven Hispanics closer to Democrats.

Asian Americans

Asian Americans come mostly from China, the Philippines, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. They make up only about 3 percent of the U.S. voting population, though that figure is higher in the West Coast states. They have concerns like other minorities for civil liberties and equal protection, but for years Asian Americans have voted conservatively, probably because the Republican Party has been stronger against the repressive regimes in the nations some have departed. Also, Republican leaders have pushed for fewer regulations on business, which satisfies the Asian business community, and because conservative values often align with ethical beliefs in Asian cultures. Yet in 2012, exit polls reveal that roughly 73 percent of Asians voted for Obama, and Indian Americans, many of them in the United States for less than 10 years, voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Religious Affiliation

Evangelicals Protestants

White, born-again Evangelical Protestants have become the largest religious group. They tend to hold conservative beliefs. They have become ardent supporters of the Republican Party and have joined Republicans to create the “religious right. Televangelists and leaders of conservative family-oriented groups have large followings and thus great political influence. Most members of this group do not believe in human evolution and don’t want their sons or daughters to be taught this science in public schools. They are frustrated by the removal of prayer from school and the public square. They are a strong political force in the South and Midwest. Evangelicals supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election by 80 percent and have become one of the presidents most reliable groups within his base.

Catholics

Catholics make up almost as large a group as evangelicals.
Catholic voters have historically voted with the Democratic Party but today cast votes for both parties because they constitute such a large swath of the electorate. Catholic faith and custom are defined largely by papal decrees (the Pope’s orders) from Rome, which have established some strict rules and beliefs.
The historical alliance between Catholics and Democrats began in 1856 when the party denounced the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American (or
“Know Nothing”) party and instead called for a “spirit of tolerance” in their platform. The relationship continued into the 20 century, as Catholics played a large role in the politics of the urban North. According to Gallup, Catholic votes for Democrats in presidential elections peaked when John Kennedy, himself a Catholic, won in 1960 with roughly 78 percent of those voters.
Today, the Catholic vote seems to lean Democratic nationwide but is no longer a monolith; it straddles the ideological spectrum. Roughly 25 percent of the country, Catholics overlap so many other demographics-rich and poor, young and old, white and Latino, northeast urban and Midwest suburbs- that they defy categorization. The Papacy denounces birth control and abortion, for example, thereby aligning with Republican ideals; yet the church opposes the death penalty and promotes charity, positions embraced by more Democrats than Republicans.
A recent finding of the National Election Study shows that 36 percent of Catholics identify themselves as conservative, while 35 percent say they are moderate, and 29 percent claim to be liberal.

Jews

Jewish voters participate in large numbers and vote mainly with the Democrats. They comprise a small fraction of the electorate, about 2 percent, but their participation in elections averages about 10 percent higher than the general population. Some estimates show that roughly 90 percent of Jewish people vote. Jewish-American political history parallels American Catholic history-with ethnic, often immigrant, minorities occupying larger, northern urban centers. Subject to discrimination, Jews have developed strong concerns about the power of the state and infringements on civil liberties. Jewish voters place a high priority on privacy, on ensuring basic rights for the accused, and supporting charities. These factors have caused the Jewish vote to swing in a liberal direction.
The first measurable Jewish vote went to Woodrow Wilson with 55 percent in 1916. In the 1920s, many Jews who identified as Socialists joined the Democratic Party because they feared the “Communist” label. When the United States entered World War II and later defeated the Jews’ worst enemy- Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany-FDR gained full backing from American Jewish voters. His successor, Harry Truman, sealed a generation of Jewish support for Democrats with his embrace of establishing a Jewish state in the Middle East in what became Israel. From 1952 to 1968, Jewish support for Democratic presidential candidates ran 20 to 30 percent higher than that of the general population. According to exit polls, about 71 percent of Jews voted for Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in 2016.

Business, Labor, and Unions

Entrepreneurs, leaders in the business community, CEOs of companies, shareholders, and much of the upper class tend to embrace a conservative political philosophy and capitalist principles. Small business owners also want less regulation and interference by the state in the business world. They want lower taxes and an ability to make more profits. This voting profile usually results in voting Republican.
In contrast, the wage earner, the craftsman, and the factory line worker tend to view politics through the lens of the workplace and often in line with their labor union. Since their rise in the late 1800s and early 1900s, labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor have supported government-mandated fair wage laws, child labor laws, safety regulations in the workplace, and fairness on the job. Aligned with Socialists in their earlier years, the labor unions struck a tight relationship with FDR’s party during the implementation of New Deal policies. Unions have lost much of their influence today, and membership is down from the prior generation.
The decline is explained in part by laws in 28 states that prohibit making union membership mandatory in places of business that have voted to unionize. In the 2016 election, estimates show that the Democratic presidential candidate still carried the union vote, by perhaps 16 percentage points, but by 2 points less than four years ago and a noticeable drop from the prior generation