THE FRANCHISE, VOTER REGISTRATION, AND VOTING TURNOUT

1
THE FRANCHISE, VOTER REGISTRATION, AND VOTING
TURNOUT
2
Under the original constitution, who had the
right to vote?

• for U.S. House?
• for U.S. Senate?
• for President (Presidential electors)?
• for state and local officials?

3
In early years of U.S. elections

• Voter qualifications (including for U.S. House
  and Presidential electors) set entirely by state
  law
• Proviso The House of Representatives shall be
  composed of members chosen every second year by
  the people of the several states, and the
  electors in each state shall have the
  qualifica-tions requisite for electors of the
  most numerous branch of the state legislature.
  Article 1, Section 2
• Property-owning/tax-paying qualifications common
• Often scaled to level of office
• Perhaps 50 of adult white males eligible to vote
  in first elections
• Plus some free blacks (and even some women)
  eligible to vote in some elections

4
Jacksonian Revolution (1830s)

• Almost all adult white males have the right to
  vote
• Almost all Presidential electors are popularly
  elected (except S.C)
• Voter mobilization campaigns by competing
  (Democratic and Whig) political parties
• Non-whites (and women) mostly lose the right to
  vote (in so far as they previously had that
  right)

5
14th Amendment

• Section 1. No state shall make or enforce any law
  which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
  of citizens of the United States ... nor deny
  to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
  protection of the laws.
• Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned
  among the several states according to their
  respective numbers, counting the whole number of
  persons in each state, excluding Indians not
  taxed. But when the right to vote at any election
  for the choice of electors for President and Vice
  President of the United States, Representatives
  in Congress, the executive and judicial officers
  of a state, or the members of the legislature
  thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
  of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and
  citizens of the United States, or in any way
  abridged, except for participation in rebellion,
  or other crime, the basis of representation
  therein shall be reduced in the proportion which
  the number of such male citizens shall bear to
  the whole number of male citizens twenty-one
  years of age in such state.

6
15th Amendment

• Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
  States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
  the United States or by any state on account of
  race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• Section 2. The Congress shall have power to
  enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

7
Late 19th Century

• Jim Crow regime in the South
• de jure segregation
• de facto disenfranchisement (poll tax, literacy
  test, grandfather clause,white primary,
  intimidation)
• Blacks remain enfranchised outside the South (but
  few live outside the South)
• Women (re)gain the right to vote in many states
  (especially in the West)
• 19th Amendment (1920)
• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
  United States or by any state on account of sex.

8
20th Century

• 23rd Amendment (1963)
• The District constituting the seat of government
  of the United States shall appoint in such manner
  as the Congress may direct a number of electors
  of President and Vice President equal to the
  whole number of Senators and Representatives in
  Congress to which the District would be entitled
  if it were a state, but in no event more than the
  least populous state they shall be in addition
  to those appointed by the states, but they shall
  be considered, for the purposes of the election
  of President and Vice President, to be electors
  appointed by a state and they shall meet in the
  District and perform such duties as provided by
  the twelfth article of amendment.
• 24th Amendment (1964)
• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote in any primary or other election for
  President or Vice President, for electors for
  President or Vice President, or for Senator or
  Representative in Congress, shall not be denied
  or abridged by the United States or any state by
  reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other
  tax.

9
20th Century (cont.)

• Voting Rights Act (VRA) (1965)
• 26th Amendment (1971)
• The right of citizens of the United States, who
  are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not
  be denied or abridged by the United States or any
  state on account of age.

10
Continuing Issues

• Failed 27th Amendment
• Section 1. For purposes of representation in the
  Congress, election of the President and Vice
  President, and article V of this Constitution,
  the District constituting the seat of government
  of the United States shall be treated as though
  it were a State.
• Section 2. The exercise of the rights and
  powers conferred under this article shall be by
  the people of the District constituting the seat
  of government, and as shall be provided by the
  Congress.
• Section 3. The twenty-third article of
  amendment to the Constitution of the United
  States is hereby repealed.
• Section 4. This article shall be inoperative,
  unless it shall have been ratified as an
  amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures
  of three-fourths of the several States within
  seven years from the date of its submission.

11
Continuing Issues (cont.)

• Felon disenfranchisement
• varied state laws
• Enfranchisement of (some) legal immigrants?

12
Voter Registration

• Prior to latter 19th century, no (or informal)
  voter registration
• probably a lot of fraudulent voting
• vote early and vote often
• States adopt voter registration laws in late 19th
  century
• evident decline in total turnout
• may also have had the effect of vote
  suppression
• purging of voter registration lists
• Latter part of 20th century, general
  liberalization of registration laws (by states,
  by courts, and by Congress)
• Motor Voter Act (1993)
• Help America Vote Act (2002) provisional
  ballots
• Voter registration remains something of a mess in
  some states and localities
• deadwood problem

13
Voting Turnout

• Total actual vote/ Total potential vote
• In the U.S. voting turnout is usually calculated
  as
• total recorded vote for President, divided by
• the census estimate of the voting age population
  (VAP)
• However, such turnout is often (mistakenly)
  characterized as the percent of eligible voters
  who actually voted.
• Poll workers who report high turnout on
  election night are looking at number of voters
  who showed up as a percent of registered voters
  on their lists.

14
Problems with PV/VAP

• Numerator misses
• spoiled ballots
• Presidential abstentions
• Denominator includes
• (legal and illegal) immigrants
• felons
• but excludes eligible voters overseas

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
Some Reasons for Turnout Differences

• Some countries have compulsory voting
• Most countries have (national) voter enrollment
  (vs. state voter registration) systems
• U.S has unusually frequent elections with many
  offices/propositions at stake in each
  (long-ballot)
• federal/state/local offices
• separate executive and legislative (and sometimes
  judicial) elections, primaries (sometimes with
  runoffs)
• referendums
• plus primaries (and sometimes runoffs)

19
TURNOUT IN SELECTED COUNTRIES, 1960-2005
20
TURNOUT DECLINE IN ALL OEDC COUNTRIES (1960-2000)