Stop Complaining to ME…Voter Behavior and Thinking

What do you think…?

• Talk with your neighbor..

• What are 3 reasons why people (who are eligible to vote) DO NOT VOTE?

First, let’s look at the % of people who do or do not

vote…

Fact #1 - About 30 percent of adults are “habitual voters” **They vote in presidential, midterm, school board elections. **They vote even when elections are not expected to be close.

Fact #2 - About 35 percent—are registered to vote - "periodic voters" **Generally vote in presidential elections but may not hit the polls for other elections.

Fact #3 - About 35 percent of adults aren't registered to vote – so they don’t vote

Maybe though…not everyone should vote…

Why Don’t People Vote?Breakdown of Reasons

How to get people interested in voting? Maybe we

need celebrities…Let’s take a look at one way…

What do you think?

Is this going to work?

Or…maybe we should be like Australia…

• Australia Voter Turnout - 94-96%– Registering to vote and going to the polls are

legal duties in Australia for citizens aged 18 and over, and failing to do so can result in a fine ($18) and potentially a day in court.

• 65% in the UK's 2010 general election

• 57% in the 2012 US presidential election.

Now…if you wanted to fight this without getting fined, what might you

do as a voter?• Increase in recent years of what Australians

call informal or spoiled ballots – – voters either mistakenly or intentionally submit

a ballot that is blank or improperly filled in, which cannot be counted in the final tally.

– Count for around 6% of the total votes cast – Taken together with the number of eligible voters

who fail to register, the actual percentage for voter turnout in Australia's federal elections hovers in the low 80s

• Must be 18

The 26th Amendment

"The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age”

Procedural - AGE

Procedural - Residence• Resident Aliens

Def: A foreigner who is a permanent resident of the country in which he or she resides but does not have citizenship

No to Illegal Aliens as well

The reason for that is to protect America from being subverted from within by other countries

However…how do the American people feel?

Why?

Dealing with Illegal Immigration and voting…

Dealing with Illegal Immigration and voting…

[At National Level – no]…But at the local level, all residents are already "citizens" in the sense that one definition of citizen is "an inhabitant of a city or town." Immigrants should not have to wait until they're naturalized to be able to vote for the school board or the city council, which have important effects on their lives ~Law professor

Procedural - (Absentee Ballot)

• ILL or Physically Disabled

• If unable to leave the house, they would have needed to apply for an Absentee ballot, but if it happened suddenly (day before election…couldn’t go)

Procedural- (Absentee Ballot)

• Expect to be Out of Town – college, business trip

• Could happen suddenly

• If unexpectedly called away, they would not have time to apply for an Absentee ballot

Procedural- (Absentee Ballot)

Those serving in the military

Procedural – Adults in Prison• Can’t vote - Why? Govt reason - They have proven themselves

unfit to make one of life's most important decisions: choosing the nation's leaders.

• "If you aren't willing to follow the law, you can't claim the right to make the law for everyone else.“

Here in Pennsylvania…

Some states - Maine and Vermont allowed jailed felons to vote

A few years ago, PA stipulated that you had to be out of jail for at least 5 years (9 million voters) before you were able to vote again

HOWEVER courts ruled this

UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Procedural – Mentally Ill

• If you are declared by professionals to be mentally incompetent, you are barred from voting in some states

• Let’s look at PA – 490,000 citizens are diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's. – Another 350,000 citizens are mentally handicap.

• “Some of them don't understand the basics of how voting works -- for instance, that the person with the most votes wins” -- said Dr. Jason Karlawish, an associate professor with the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics

– PA No statute or provision disqualifying a person with mental illness from voting.

PA population- 12.77 million

Procedural • Cumbersome (Election Procedures)

• Such as… registration, showing ID, Voting in a specific location

Procedural • Cumbersome Election Procedures

• Voter ID… hot topic…old Poll Taxes?

IF YOU DON’T REQUIRE A PHOTO ID - makes it easy for people to vote more than once or under names not their own, inviting fraud that compromises the integrity of elections.

*If one must have an ID to drive, rent a hotel room, or buy alcohol, they argue, requiring it to vote is reasonable.

Critics of voter ID laws say that the threat of voter fraud is wildly exaggerated and that such requirements disenfranchise certain communities, such as minorities, the poor, and senior citizens

Who are

they?

Why wouldn’t you have Photo ID?

To get Photo ID – need your birth certificate

To get a Birth Certificate – need your

Photo ID

PA – 2012 – Gov. Corbett signed

Voter ID Law

• A Pennsylvania judge in January (2014) struck down the law requiring voters in the state to show photo identification at the polls– “the requirement imposed

‘unreasonable burden’ on voters” – Corbett Will not take it to the next level

• Who challenged the law? – – civil and voters' rights groups (ACLU)

So…what does that mean for PA…?• Will continue with its current voter

verification process:– A voter's signature is compared to a signature

on file

The Candidates

It is more common in state and local elections to have a lower voter turnout

*suffer from BALLOT FATIGUE

- def: the further down the ballot an office is, the fewer number of votes will be cast

The Candidates -

• SATISFIED WITH WHOEVER

• They are satisfied with the political world as they see it – No matter who wins the election, things will continue to go well for them

The Candidates

• DISTRUST THE SYSTEM

• Distrust politicians and politics – That government by the people has been taken over by: greedy politicians, powerful special interest groups, and the media

The Candidates

• No One They Like

• They just don’t like the candidates, their issues, their morals, etc… .

The Candidates

• Lack of Interest• Most often they do not know the simplest

factors about the candidates and issues• Question?

Is it wrong NOT TO VOTE because you don’t know the facts?

Vote or Die (DVD)

Personal Reasons

• Oops… Forgetting to vote

• A common explanation – just get too busy dealing with other things

Personal Reasons – Religious Beliefs

• They believe that acts such as voting are idolatry (def: worship of any image, idea, or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic deity)

Jehovah’s Witness, Anabaptists, Hutterines, Mennonites, German Baptists, Dunkwards, Moravians, Separatists, Congregationalists, The Amish, and certain other types of Baptists

Personal Reasons –

• NO REAL DIFFERENCE• They are convinced that it makes no

real difference so they choose not to go to the polls

Personal Reasons

• No Transportation to or from polling place

Personal Reasons

• LONG LINES and deal with CROWDS

• Polls open and close at certain times– Can you get time off of work?– What if you work a 12-14 hr. shift?– Average wait time?

• Nation (2012)?Michigan voters spent an average of 21.9 minutes waiting

National rate of 11.9 minutes

Personal Reasons

• Time Zone Fallout

• East Coast Polls close however West Coast is still OPEN…Media projects winner

Other Personal Reasons…

The Administration of ElectionWhat to do on election day?

Application for Absentee

Ballot

When are the General Elections held?

In NOVEMBER –

Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday

Primaries (ex: Direct, Blanket)

State law establish the date for the primary election

Ex: PA May 20, 2014

When are the General Elections held?

Why so specific?

Prevents Election Day from falling on a:

Oops – I have to register

Paper Way post office

Or

Online *Still have to send it in the mail

Oops – I have to register

Online *Still have to send it in the mail

What if I won’t be around to vote?

• Most states make provisions for absentee voting

• Def: voting by those unable to get to their regular polling places on election day

3 groups who can apply

1) those too ill or disabled to make it out

2) those who expect to be out of town (business trip, college, vacation)

3) Those serving in the military

Have to apply for an absentee ballot within a specific period of time, mark the ballot, seal it, and return it to the proper local election official

Can you spot the oops?

300 Absentee ballots with the gaffe were mailed out to voters in Rensselaer County, NY (once caught – 3700 were destroyed and new ones mail out)

Couldn’t I vote early…?

• Nearly half of the states allow voters to cast ballots over a period of several days before an election….NOT PA

Where do I go to vote?

• Your Precinct is your voting district (500-1000 qualified voters)

• Your Polling Place is the place where the voters who live in a precinct actually cast their vote

Each Precinct is supervised by an Election Board

1) Supervise the polling place

2) Makes sure the ballots, ballot boxes, voting machines are available

3) Check to be sure voters meet the qualifications

4) Count the votes and

report to proper place

How do I vote?• Casting a ballot…what is that?

• Def: a device by which a voter registers a choice in an election Send out

sample ballots or printed inthe newspaper oron the internet BUT not officially be cast

Old Way Paper based punch card voting machines

(Butterfly Ballots)

Several Problems

Several Problems con’t• Deciphering who

the person actually voted for – didn’t punch through all the way or punched between two selections

New way Touch Screen Voting

• What if it breaks?

Paper ballots provided so LINES ARE NOT LONG and TURN PEOPLE AWAY FROM VOTING

Other ways to cast your ballot…

Vote-By-Mail

They send you official ballot in mail – fill it out and send it back in a specific period of time.

BUT Controversial…Why?Threatens the principle of SECRET BALLOT!

Who you vote for is your own business – no one should influence your vote

Plus (mail) Voter Fraud/Lost Ballots

Other ways to cast your ballot…

Online Voting (NOT USED YET)

Why not – seems so easy!