Poverty Myth: Poor People Choose Not to Vote
Poverty Myth: Poor People Choose Not to Vote
FALSE!
While people in poverty do vote at a lower rate than wealthier people, they also face extreme obstacles that can prevent them from acting on their choice to vote. When we consider whether poor people choose not to vote, it is important to put things in context.
In America today, voter turnout is low across the board, not just among people living in poverty. Only 61% of citizens of voting age voted in the 2016 presidential election, for instance, which was on par with previous presidential election years [1]. Those votes do vary by income, however, with one study by Demos of the 2008, 2010, and 2012 elections showing that the lowest income groups vote at a 30% lower rate than the highest income groups. [2]
The impact this has on our society is significant. In the words of the authors of that Demos study, “[V]oting gaps of this magnitude are a significant factor in biasing public policy against a large majority of Americans, which includes large numbers of low-income households, and in favor of the comparatively tiny group consisting of the most affluent households.” [2]
So, why don’t people in the lowest income brackets vote at the same rate as those in the highest?
Voter Suppression is a Thing
Any American citizen over 18 years old is eligible to vote. In reality, things are much more complicated – and all of those complications impact people in poverty more than the wealthy.
In recent years, over 30 states have passed some kind of voter ID law [3]. The ID required ranges from a birth certificate or a government-issued photo ID, to a utility bill that can serve as proof of address. No matter the ID requirement, these laws disproportionately disenfranchise voters of lower socioeconomic status, particularly Blacks and Hispanics. [3]
A closer look at the ten states with the most stringent requirements, a government-issued photo ID, is a good illustration.
In order for those requirements to be legal, the state has to issue free government ID’s, otherwise the law would qualify as a poll tax. In reality, though, acquiring one of these ID’s requires other forms of identification which can still cost money – getting a birth certificate can cost up to $25 in some states. Add to that the cost for married women of obtaining a marriage license to prove that their name changed when they married, which can cost another $20 [4].
All of this assumes that you are physically able to go to a government ID office during its working hours. Just getting the free time to leave your place of employment and travel to an ID office is no small task if you are working multiple jobs or if you live in a rural area far from the nearest office. But be careful – you have to get there while they’re open. One Wisconsin voter ID office which was included in an NYU study of voter ID laws was only open on the fifth Wednesday of any month [4].
In 2018, only four months even had five Wednesdays. And then people claim that poor people choose not to vote?
And of course, all of this is focusing just on voter ID laws. Limited polling hours, the absence of same-day registration, and the inability to simply transfer voter registration when you move in many states also impact the ability of low-income Americans to vote [2 and 5]. With so many obstacles in their way, is it any wonder that many people feel these laws are intentionally disenfranchising them?
People Convicted of a Felony Can’t Vote
There is of course another bit of policy that disproportionately impacts people in poverty and minorities – restrictions on voting placed on individuals convicted of a felony.
Voting laws vary by state, with the two most permissive states (Vermont and Maine) allowing felons to vote while in prison, and the three most restrictive (Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky) only allowing convicted felons to regain the right to vote by direct petition [6].
The impact of these policies is significant. According to the nonprofit The Sentencing Project, 6.1 million Americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction. This disproportionately impacts African Americans, with one in every thirteen African Americans denied their right to vote because of felony convictions compared to one in every fifty-six non-Black voters. [7]
When we keep in mind that policing, particularly related to the war on drugs, unfairly targets communities in poverty and minorities, these laws can be clearly seen for what they are – another obstacle to voting in the path of people living in poverty.
People in Poverty Tend to be Younger – and Younger People Vote Less
Perhaps most chilling though is the simple fact that fewer people in poverty survive to the age when voting usually reaches its peak. There is a long-understood link in social sciences between age and political participation, with people voting more as they age, up until around fifty years old when participation again begins to wane.
In an article entitled “Health Disparities, Politics, and the Maintenance of the Status Quo: A New Theory of Inequality”, Professor Javier Rodriguez of the Claremont Graduate University looked at life expectancy, political activism, and socioeconomic status and found that one of the reasons people in poverty vote less often than the wealthy is that the population of people in poverty skews younger than the general population, and as a result the wealthy are a higher share of the population at peak voting age. [8]When we take into account that political priorities differ by socioeconomic status (for instance, according to one 2013 study, the wealthy were far less likely than the non-wealthy to support government spending for healthcare, jobs programs, or education [9]) we see that America is really trapped in a vicious cycle.
As Rodriguez noted in his study, “the same individuals from which we expect to see increased participation to pressure for redistributive policies, are those who die off from the available pool of participants at higher rates than their socioeconomically advantaged counterparts – a process that accentuates during the middle age years when individuals have the tendency to participate the most.” [8]In other words, the people who would be most likely to vote for social programs that would prolong and improve the lives of people living in poverty often succumb to the tragic effects of poverty before they really get the chance to influence policy through their vote.
When it comes to voter participation, it is clear that once again our country stacks the cards against those in poverty. It is simply unfair to say that poor people choose not to vote.
Sources:
[1] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/05/voting_in_america.html
[2] https://www.demos.org/publication/why-voting-gap-matters
[3] https://www.propublica.org/article/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-about-voter-id-laws
[4] https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/challenge-obtaining-voter-identification
[5] https://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2013/09/america-goes-to-the-polls-2012-voter-participation-gaps-in-the-2012-presidential-election.pdf/
[6] https://www.nonprofitvote.org/voting-in-your-state/special-circumstances/voting-as-an-ex-offender/
[7] http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/
[8] Rodriguez, J. (2018). Health disparities, politics, and the maintenance of the status quo: A new theory of inequality. Social Science & Medicine, 200, 36-43. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618300108
[9] Page, B., Bartels, L., & Seawright, J. (2013). Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans. Perspectives on Politics, 11(1), 51-73. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxyau.wrlc.org/stable/43280689