One Option of a Voter Is to Ignore It All

Now is the time for all good patriots to urge that Americans vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, thereby reversing the low voter turnout of recent decades. To be sure, voter participation in the United States is behind that of many other nations, and political leaders would certainly welcome an increased turnout in the general election. At the same time, it would be erroneous to suggest that the American trend is somehow illustrative of a major defect in the body politic.

Unlike some other countries, America has no paternalistic voter-registration system. In Britain, election officials are responsible for going out into the land to keep voting lists up to date; in France, registration is compulsory, and Australia imposes a fine on non-voters.

Second, the United States is the most fiddle-footed nation in the world, its residents roaming the land with such frequency that registration and absentee voting become more than a simple process. Only four states permit registration on Election Day, and only one requires no registration at all.

Also, the nation’s history has moved in the direction of low turnouts. In colonial times, eligible voters were induced to vote because there was a reward: Voting was not a private affair; Virginia, for example, utilized oral votes in return for which good food and hard drink were extended by the chosen candidate. Even in areas where the paper ballot became widespread by the 19th Century, voting still was not secret, but it was rewarded. For the most part, states took no initiative in printing ballots. So party leaders printed their own, often taking voters by the hand to the ballot box to ensure that they voted a straight party ticket and reciprocating with money and other favors. Not surprisingly, voter turnout was high (and so were a lot of voters). In presidential elections it was 80.2% in 1840, 81.8% in 1876 and 74.7% in 1892. That such impressive figures represented an advanced state of American democratic practices is dubious.

By 1910 all states except South Carolina and Georgia had adopted the secret ballot, first used in Australia and often dubbed the Australian ballot. Under this system, government would print ballots, provide an organization and listing of candidates, and establish a private area for casting ballots. By 1928 congressional legislation mandated American citizenship as a universal prerequisite for voting in presidential elections--a requirement that, like the secret ballot, would cut down on fraud as well as voter participation. By 1932 voter participation was down to 56.9%, and would remain in that range in subsequent elections.

Finally, voter turnout could be correlated with increasing national stability--that is, the extent to which Americans have established a political consensus. In contrast to nations in which ideological parties or individuals are conspicuous, the United States in recent decades has forged a political environment that features candidates who are more alike than different. Sameness of political parties and candidates does not serve to induce voter turnout, but is scarcely an unwelcome political development.

Perhaps most important, as the nation with the most freedom for its citizens, America thereby encourages non-participation as much as it does participation in the voting process. And, while the latter may be more socially valued than the former, both should serve to remind us of the enormous range of legitimate choice in our society.