American Voting Participation

• Published date: 01 December 1966
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900403
• Author: William G. Andrews
• Date: 01 December 1966
• Subject Matter: Articles

AMERICAN VOTING PARTICIPATION
WILLIAM G. ANDREWS
Tufts University
T
IS GENERALLY assumed that about two-thirds of the American electorate
a
vote in a presidential-year election. This is the figure that is used in the standard
American government textbooks, in most specialized studies, and by public
officials.
1
It is calculated by dividing the civilian voting-age population into the
total number of votes cast for President and increasing the result arbitrarily by
several percentage points to account for persons of voting age who are legally
excluded from the electorate. Research for the present article suggests that the
two-thirds figure is too low. In 1960, at least, probably between 80 and 85 per cent
of persons who were legally and physically able to vote did so. This suggests that
much of the discussion about apathetic, uninterested, lazy, and alienated voters
rests on false information. It also indicates that some of the unfavorable com-
parisons made with voting participation in other countries may not be valid.2
2
The two-thirds figure is low for three principal reasons: ( 1 ) The number of
persons excluded from the electorate by law is higher than is usually assumed. (2)
The figure does not take into account persons unable to vote because of a combi-
nation of personal circumstances and legal requirements, especially the requirement
that one vote at a polling place near his residence unless he anticipates an impedi-
ment that is legally acceptable as grounds for issuing an absentee ballot. Nor does
it take into account Negroes who are excluded from the electorate by intimidation.
(3) The number of persons who vote in an election is greater than the number who
cast valid ballots for President.
NOTE: The author received a Tufts University Faculty Research Grant to cover certain
expenses entailed in preparing this article. Mr. John Yates assisted him in the search
for data.
1
Some examples: Robert K. Carr, et al., American Democracy in Theory and Practice (4th
ed.; New York: Holt, 1963), p. 274; James MacGregor Burns and Jack Walter Pelta-
son, Government by the People (5th ed.; Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1963),
p. 254; E. E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People (New York: Holt, 1960),
p. 97; Claudius O. Johnson and Associates, American National Government (5th ed.;
New York: Crowell, 1960), p. 395; Thomas H. Eliot, Governing America (2d ed.;
New York: Dodd, Mead, 1964), p. 234; William Goodman, The Two-Party System in
the United States (2d ed.; Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1960), p. 574; V. O. Key, Parties,
Politics, and Pressure Groups (5th ed.; New York: Crowell, 1964), pp. 576-78; Clinton
Rossiter, Parties and Politics in America (Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1962), 28-32; Hugh
A. Bone and Austin Ranney, Politics and Voters (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), p. 44.
Bone and Ranney estimate 75.8 per cent in 1960. Rossiter says "75 per cent of the
electorate outside the South voted in 1952."
2
Great Britain, 78.7 per cent in 1959; West Germany, 87.5 in 1961; France, 68.8 in 1962;
Switzerland, 66.1 in 1963. D. E. Butler and Richard Rose, The British General Election
of 1959 (London: Macmillan, 1960), p. 205; Press and Information Office of the Ger-
man Federal Government, The Bulletin, September 19, 1961; Année politique, 1962
(Paris: P.U.F., 1963), p. 126; Le Monde diplomatique, October 27, 1963. On the
other hand: Italy 92.9 per cent in 1963, and New Zealand, 90.5 per cent in 1963.
Italian Information Center, Italy’s General Elections 1963, Part II (New York), p. 6;
Le Monde diplomatique, November 30, 1963. Most countries based their estimates of
electoral turnout on official lists of eligible voters, including those ill or traveling. In some
cases, these lists may not be complete. One study covering France indicates that perhaps
15 per cent of the voting-age population is not enrolled on the official voting lists.
639

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640
Some estimates used in this study must be very rough approximations. In the
first place, available election statistics are incomplete and often not comparable
among states. For instance, very few states report the number of spoiled ballots
and others do not report the total number of valid ballots. Secondly, official or
authoritative statistics on some relevant population characteristics are incomplete
or unavailable. The number of persons who do not meet state residence require-
ments, for instance, can be estimated only in a very general way, and there is even
less basis for estimating the number of persons who are traveling or ill on election
day and are not eligible for absentee ballots.3 Thirdly, there are some sticky prob-
lems of definition. What is a pauper? What is an insane person? Finally, there
seems to be no easy way to estimate with confidence the extent of overlap among
different categories. An alien, illiterate prison inmate is thrice excluded from the
electorate, yet he is counted only once in the total civilian voting-age population.
Nor is it feasible to estimate the number of legally excluded persons who actually
do vote, or the amount of &dquo;ballot box stuffing,&dquo; or deliberately uncounted valid
votes. With so many uncertainties and calculated guesses the following estimates
can make only limited claim to definitiveness. It seems unlikely, however, that the
main point of this article is undermined as a result. In any case, the available data
do seem to provide a more precise estimate of electoral participation than has been
made previously.
The figures 106,974,000 and 68,836,355 are the ones usually used in reaching
the two-thirds estimate for the 1960 election.4
4
My research shows that the first
figure is larger than the actual legal, effective electorate and that the second figure
is lower than the actual number of voters. The next two sections of this article
will whittle away at the first figure. The third section will augment the second
figure.
The Bureau of the Census estimates that there were 106,974,000 civilians of
voting age in the United States on November 1, 1960. This includes all non-military
persons residing in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, whether or not re-
siding on federal reservations or in institutions. It does not include persons living
abroad or in the dependencies whether or not they are civilian dependents of mili-
tary personnel. The Clerk of the House of Representatives reported that 68,836,385
valid votes were cast for President in 1960. This includes all valid votes cast for
René Rémond, "Participation électorale et participation organisée," in Georges Vedel
(ed.), La dépolitisation (Paris: Colin, 1962), p. 75. This 15 per cent probably includes
ineligible persons, but no doubt also includes a substantial number of eligible voters
who are not inscribed on the official register.
A systematic comparative study of voting participation would be interesting and
valuable, but lies far outside the scope of this paper. Much close study remains to be
done before comparable data on other countries can be produced.
3
This inadequacy remains despite a thorough search of relevant materials in the superb
collection of election data assembled by the library of the Littauer School of Public
Administration under the guidance of the late Professor V. O. Key, Jr.; in the library
of the Harvard Law School; in Harvard College’s Widener Library; in the library of the
State Capitol, Boston; in the Boston Public Library; in the Eaton and Ginn libraries
of Tufts University; and in the Education Libraries at Tufts and Harvard.
4
The 1960 election has been used because it is recent and coincided with a census.

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641
legal elector candidates as far as reported by the appropriate state authorities. It
omits spoiled and blank ballots and many write-in votes.5
LEGAL EXCLUSIONS
Residence Requirements
The most numerous group of persons excluded from the electorate by law is
composed of those who do not meet residence requirements. All states in 1960 had
some type of residence requirement for voting, although three states s permitted
persons to vote for President without meeting the residence requirements imposed
as prerequisites to voting for state and local offices. There was great variation in
the states’ requirements. The most restrictive state was Mississippi which required
residence of two years in the state and one year in the election district.7 The most
liberal was Idaho, which permitted voting after residing six months in the state
and 30 days in the county. Typically, the prospective voter must have resided in
the state one year and, less often, in the county 90 days and in the precinct 30 days.&dquo;
Key estimates the percentage of otherwise qualified voters who are excluded
from the electorate for failure to meet residence requirements at 5 per cent.9 An-
other scholar sets the figure at 4.3 for the 1950 election.10 In 1960, 5 per cent of the
estimated civilian voting-age population was 5,348,700 persons and 4.3 per cent was
4,599,882. The American Heritage Foundation estimates that in the year preceding
the 1960 elections, 33 million Americans moved, of whom about 8 million were
thereby disfranchised.ll The census bureau estimated that from March 1, 1960, to
March 1, 1961, 6,510,000 persons twenty-one years of age or over moved between
5
U.S. Congress, Clerk of the House, Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election
of November 8, 1960.
6
Ohio, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
7
Data on state election laws has been drawn from Constance E. Smith, Voting...