Reporter: Erin Thomas
On November 4th, voters across the United States cast their ballots in the 2014 midterm elections. The Pew Research Center for People & the Press released a study just four days before the midterm elections predicting that 6 in 10 voting-age adults would not show up at the polls on Election Day. Additionally, the study found that those who were most unlikely to vote are demographically distinct from likely voters:
•They are young: 34 percent of nonvoters are younger than 30 years old and the vast majority — 70 percent — are younger than 50 years old.
•They are racially and ethnically diverse: A full 43 percent of nonvoters are Hispanic, African American, or other racial and ethnic minorities. That is roughly double the 22 percent of likely voters comprised by minorities.
•They are less affluent than likely voters: Almost half—46 percent—of nonvoters have family incomes less than $30,000 per year, while only 19 percent of likely voters are from low-income families.
•They are less educated than likely voters: While 72 percent of likely voters have completed at least some college, most nonvoters—54 percent—did not attend college.
However, one should keep in mind that voter turnout regularly drops in midterm elections and has continued to do so since the 1840’s. If you look at the 2008 election when Barack Obama became the first African American president, over 57 percent of voting-age adults cast their ballots. Just two years later, under 40 percent of voting-age adults cast their ballots in the midterm election. In 2012, for Obama’s reelection, turnout rebounded over 53 percent. Dwight Brooks, Director of the School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University, gives his theory on why midterm elections typically have a low turnout.
Brooks also feels that our nation’s Democratic leaders could and should do better as far as campaigning. He received numerous phone calls and brochures from Republican officials, but until the very end, he received nothing from the Democratic party. Unfortunately, there isn’t a strong, local Democratic organization in Rutherford County and they’ve continued to face issues as to which candidates to run. Many feel that, overall, both parties should encourage all citizens to participate in voting. When politicians do discuss the issues that matter to low-income voters, such as minimum-wage increases, it is often only in the context of how those issues affect their existing political supporters. Jennifer Woodard, Associate Professor in Mass Communications at MTSU feels that typically female minorities struggle the most.
It appears that many minority Americans don’t view voting and electing officials as an essential part of their life, or at least that seemed to be the case in this midterm election. Part of this mindset could be attributed to factors that prevent minorities from voting. Long waits, strict I.D. laws, and trouble finding the correct polling place are just a few barriers faced by voters in this election. Statistics have shown that minorities are more likely to claim they didn’t have reliable transportation to the precincts, or that their work schedules conflicted with the voting time. With this information in mind, it’s possible – if not probable – that a percentage of minority voters chose not to cast their ballot because they expected the process to be difficult or challenging. Reverend James McCarroll, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, describes the vantage point of minorities.
The map below shows all the voting precincts in Rutherford county. Those shaded darker are those who had a higher turnout. The counties shaded with a lighter color had a lower turnout.
This graph gives a detailed view of the turnouts at Rutherford County precincts.
Sources Cited:
“The Party of Nonvoters.” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.