Why People Don't Vote

People who can vote but do not fall into a few categories.

1) Apathetic. These are people who do not believe their vote will matter, or who do not believe their efforts can lead to change, or who are not interested in social and political topics. (As mentioned in class, you may not be interested in government, but the government will be interested in you.)

2) Fearful. Some people are afraid because they don't know how to cast a vote (sometimes even physically, because they have never seen it done), or are wary because they don't understand the issues or candidates. Some fear family or other social pressure to vote in a certain way. (The remedy for fear is often education.)

3) Poor. This includes people who are making a living but have so many things to do that they forget or do not prioritize registering and voting. Most poor people in America are working poor, and they may be constrained not only by income but also by time. Also, many poorer people have less education, and higher education levels correlate directly to political participation.

4) Young. Citizens who are 18 to 29 do not vote at the same rates as older people. In some cases they have not yet been educated about the process; in others, they seem unaware of how government policies and leaders might affect their lives. And some overlap with previous categories. Many young people who do not vote eventually become older people who do.

5) Disaffected. These are people who find the political process or American political culture distasteful or even disgusting. They may be highly interested (not apathetic) but turn their backs on basic principles of participation for a variety of often ideological reasons. (One cure for this approach is to live for any length of time in a dictatorship. Then the limitations of American democracy might seem fewer than the opportunities.)

6) Disenfranchised. Some people do not vote because they have been unfairly removed from the voter rolls, or prevented from voting on some pretext on the day of voting, or intimidated from going to the polls. Yes, those things happened even in the election of 2018.

Which category is shown below?