Article
from
The New York Times
The news media blitz of Super Tuesday's caucuses and primaries underscored a remarkable, though largely unnoted, fact: Politics, increasingly, is purely a spectator sport.
The media handicap the entries, networks cover the outcome and news anchors parade lucky contenders into the winner's circle. But how many of the spectators even take the trouble to place bets?
Only some 23 percent of voting age Texans showed up at the polls to give away Super Tuesday's biggest prize: 294 delegates. In Florida, about 22 percent of those eligible to register and vote bothered to vote despite expensive courtship from Vice President Bush and Bob Dole on the Republican side and nearly all of the Democratic front runners.
Even though the turnout of registered voters increased this year in many contests, overall participation by the voting age population remains dismally low. Even in New Hamshire, where there was a surprisingly active primary, still about twice as many shunned the polls as voted.
Voting is the lowest common denominator of democracy. But the proportion of Americans voting in Presidential elections has declined almost steadly since a postwar apex in 1960, when 62.8 percent of eligble voters cast ballots.
In the last Presidential election, only 53 percent of the voting age population turnes out. The 1986 midterm elections posted not only the lowest turnout since 1942, but outside the states of the Old Confederacy it was the lowest in history. this November, up to 90 million people of voting age are expected to shun the ballott boxes, assuring that the United States will remain last among industrialized democracies in voter participation.
Who cares? Or who should care - and why? Participation in self-government, even by the simple act of voting, encourages citizens to become more informed the they would be otherwise and, as participants in the process, more likely to comply with government's choices and actions.
When half of the people drop out, what effect does this have on the behavior of a democratic government that relies on elections as the primary means of assuring that the governors attend to the views of the governed?
When half don;t vote, what does this imply about the legitimacy of a government that " derives its just powers from the consent of the governed"?
Nothing good. the 18th century historian Edward Gibbon provides an ominous warning in his analysis of the demise of Athens: " When the Athenians sinally wanted not to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, the then Athens ceased to be free".
The reasons for nonvoting stem from both deep and surface problems. The deep problems include citizens' decreasing sense of civic responsiblility, loss of faith in government and feeling of impotence in an era in which candidates seem further and further removed from the mainstream. The surface problems stem from barriors in our electoral process: complicated voter registration procedures: a plethora of state, local and Federal election days, and inconventient voting hours.
At a recent Washington conference sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, two agendas of action emerged for increasing voter participation.
The first agenda. Simplify the voting process. Experts estimate that six million of and estimated 90 million nonvoters could be brought into the political process by streamlining registration. Today, to register in some states, one must sign up more than 30 days before an election in places as uninviting as the basement of a city jail. States with election day registration, registration by mail and registration in convenient public locations such as the post office have the highest voter turnout.
Last November, Senator Alan Cranston introduced a bill to establish natinal standards for voter registration; it is now biding its time in the Rules Committee. It would require staes to allow for election day registration; facilitate registration in any Federal, sttate, county or municipal agency, and establish outreach efforts to increase registration.
In addition to lowering barriers to registration, the states should reduce obstacles to voting by exploring Sunday or holliday voting, 24 hour voting and coordinating Federal, state, and local election days.
Austria, where registration is automatic and elections held on Sunday, has the second highest rate of voting in industrial democracies: 88 percent of eligible persoms. Italy, where voting is compulsory, has the highest rate: 94 percent.
The second agenda. Strengthen citizens' sense of civic duty. Deeper problems that stem from a declining sense of civic duty. Deeper problems that stem from a declining sense of civic responsiblity must also be addressed. Schools in some states now combine the opportunity for polititical involvement with course work to make civics come alive. For example, the Washington D.C., school system has been introducing a computerized system of automatically punching out a voter registration card for each student who turns 18.
The educational process must involve adults, too. Children do what they see more often than what they are told. Here, the television networks could play a valuable role in educating viewers.
Overall, the trend of nonvoting is reversible. Already, many states have come up with ways to address the surface issues and some states are also tackling the deeper problems in the classroom and through local media.
It is now up to Congress to generalize solutions- -to lower barriers to registration and voting and to increase education initiatives. It is up to the media to help spread the word. And, of course it is up to candidatees to convert nonvoters by stressing in their campaigns the United Staes' 200-year-old vivion of freedom and obligation.