Last place. Although the final, official tally has not yet been released, it appears as if Indiana may have ended the 2014 general election with the lowest voter turnout numbers in the country. According to the data compiled by the United States Elections Project, only 28 percent of registered Indiana voters showed up to the polls. This number breaks the previous record low of 39 percent in 2002 and is quite possibly the lowest turnout in the history of the Hoosier State. Nationwide, the turnout was the lowest since 1942 at just 36.4 percent.
The discussion surrounding voting can be a polarizing one, evident by the responses some Indianapolis residents gave on the lack of voter participation. “People don’t vote because they genuinely do not care. How can you punch that clock every day, but not care about voting to keep someone out your pockets?” asked 35-year-old William Jackson.
“We send our children to school every day, but we don’t participate in the educational reform debate or neglect to elect School Board Commissioners, who have our best interest at heart. I personally do not believe in taxation without representation. I refuse to sit by and allow politicians to dip in my pocket and say absolutely nothing.”
Marshawn Wolley, director of partner relations for Visit Indy, said his visit to the polls was largely out of mere obligation. “There wasn’t a sense that you were voting for something big,” he said.
However, Wolley admitted two races piqued his interest. “I showed up to the polls in part due to friends who were running and I knew there was history to be made with the election of Marion County Clerk and Circuit Court Judge.”
Wolley’s assessment was proved correct, as Sheryl Lynch made history by becoming Judge-Elect of the Marion County Circuit Court, the first woman, and African-American, to win that seat; and also by Myla Eldridge, who also won election to become the first African-American woman to be named Marion County Clerk.
Nevertheless, Wolley, who worked in crime prevention under former mayor Bart Peterson’s administration, said he “struggles” with the idea of voting. “Yes, I show up to vote but it’s really more out of habit – I don’t even include it as a part of civic responsibility because it’s only one day,” he said. “I think older generations use hyperbole by saying that people died for the right to vote. I don’t believe that. I think if anyone died, they died for the opportunity to change their circumstances and right now I don’t think voting is the way to change your circumstances.”
A 2006 Illinois State University study showed that feelings of alienation from candidates and indifference toward the political system are two major causes of voter apathy. In his book America’s Uneven Democracy: Race, Turnout, and Representation in City Politics, professor of political science at UC San Diego Zoltan Hajnal said what is most striking about nonvoting is that it is uneven across the population.
“Study after study of the American electorate has found that individuals with ample resources vote much more regularly than those with few resources – the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, the less educated,” he said. Hajnal also pointed to the commonly held belief that the concerns of those who choose not to participate in the electoral process are ignored as a need for an increase in voter participation.
Low turnout for Ferguson
In a recent op-ed piece for the L.A. Times, Hajnal spoke on the low voter turnout in Ferguson, Mo. as one example of a need for not only more civic engagement but changes in policy as well, particularly the timing of their municipal elections. According to the Ferguson City Charter, regular city elections are held annually on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in April in odd-numbered years, a time when there are no state or federal offices on the ballot.
In 2013, just 11.7 percent of eligible voters actually casted a ballot. Among African-American voters, only 6 percent of those who were eligible participated in Ferguson’s municipal elections, as compared to 17 percent of white voters.
“Blacks represent two-thirds of the city population, yet the mayor, five of six city council members, six of seven school board members and 50 of 53 police officers are not Black,” said Hajnal.
“Cities with higher turnout and greater minority representation tend to enact policies that are more in line with racial and ethnic minority preferences. In particular, higher turnout is associated with greater social welfare spending and greater hiring of minorities in city government.”
At Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper press time, the Secretary of State’s office declined to comment on preliminary voter turnout results. “The deadline for counties to certify their numbers was last Friday,” said spokesperson Valerie Kroeger. She said it will be at least another week before official totals are reported.
