July 17, 2009
Voter turnout for the 2008 General Election has been widely analyzed and many factors (mostly candidates and their campaign teams) are credited with raising turnout rates to forty-year highs. Our partners at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Education (CIRCLE) have released a report that adds to this body of descriptive statistics a clear, prescriptive message. “State Election Law Reform and Youth Voter Turnout” compares states’ voter turnout rates among 18-to-29-year-olds and isolates how much of the variation can be attributed to state’s elections laws. For states committed to increasing young voter’s civic participation, the report offers an easy reference on what legislative measures seem to be working and which do not.
For example, CIRCLE found that Election Day registration (EDR) laws lowered common obstacles to youth voting: registration processes and deadlines. States with EDR laws saw, on average, higher youth turnout than those without them. This held true within almost every demographic of youth, even after controlling for multiple confounding factors. “After controlling for effects of education attainment, gender, marital status, age, race, and ethnicity,” the authors write, “young people whose home state implemented EDR were 41% more likely to vote in the November 2008 election than those who did not have residence in the EDR states.” For example, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, three states that used to rank among those with the largest gap between youth and general turn out rates, greatly reduced the turnout gap following the implementation of EDR laws. In the process, Wyoming now enjoys the 7th smallest gap between youth and non-youth turnout despite being ranked 39th before the state adopted EDR laws.
In contrast, early voting seems to have had little to no effect on youth turnout. While 24% of young voters in states with an early voting option decided to use it, there was not a significant difference between states that offered it and those that did not in youth turnout. This is not to say that the program is a bad one⎯high use suggests it really is much more convenient for voters⎯ but only that it does not seem to induce young Americans to vote when they wouldn’t otherwise.
CIRCLE’s research provides significant insight into the barriers to participation young voters face. Inclusion of all voices, including young people, is crucial not only to cultivating a strong civic tradition of participation, but also to increasing the vitality of our democracy today.