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Lynne Casper/Loretta Bass
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Hectic Lifestyles Make for Record-Low Election
Turnout, Census Bureau Reports
Nearly 5 million registered voters said they did not vote in the 1996
presidential election because they couldn't take off from work or school
or were otherwise too busy, contributing heavily to the lowest voter
turnout reported in a general election since the Census Bureau began
collecting these data in 1964, according to the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
(The report is accessible on an embargoed basis on the Internet at
<http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/embargo.html>. After the release time,
it may be found at <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html>.)
"Among Americans who were registered but did not vote, more than 1 in 5
told us they didn't go to the polls because they couldn't take time off
from work or were too busy triple the proportion who gave this reason in
1980," said Lynne Casper, co-author with Loretta Bass of the report,
Voting and Registration in the Election of November 1996, P20-504.
"Time constraints are now the single biggest reason Americans who are
registered give for not voting many people these days are finding their
employers are putting so many demands on them, they can't take time off to
vote," Bass added.
Another reason increasingly cited for not voting is apathy about the
political process: 17 percent of non-voting registered persons reported
they did not vote in 1996 for this reason, up from 11 percent in 1980.
The report examines voting and registration in the 1996 presidential
election compared with that of previous elections; the data are shown by
various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Also, for the first
time, the Census Bureau analyzes voting and registration among the citizen
population (rather than among the voting-age population, which includes
noncitizens) and compares the rates for native-born and naturalized
citizens.
Other highlights include:
-Fifty-four percent of the voting-age population reported voting in the
1996 general election, down from 61 percent in 1992. The
7-percentage-point decline was the largest drop between consecutive
presidential elections since 1964.
-Eight percent reported voting by absentee ballot in 1996, double the
percentage who did so in 1980.
-Overall, native-born Americans were more likely than naturalized
citizens to vote in the 1996 election (59 percent compared with 53
percent). However, among Hispanics, the reverse was true: 53 percent of
naturalized citizens and 42 percent of the native born
voted.
-Among citizens, Hispanics and Asians and Pacific Islanders continued
to vote at lower levels (44 percent and 45 percent, respectively) than
Whites (61 percent) and African Americans (53 percent).
-The peak ages for voting were between 55 and 74; more than 7 of every
10 citizens in this age group cast a ballot.
-Although the National Voter Registration Act (the "motor-voter" law)
went into effect in 1995, only 66 percent of the voting-age population
reported they were registered in 1996,the lowest rate for any
presidential election since 1968. Almost 3 in 10 people registering
to vote between January 1995 and November 1996 did so when they
obtained or renewed their drivers' licenses.
Data are from the November 1996 Current Population Survey (CPS). As in
all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other
sources of error. The CPS routinely overestimates voter turnout. As
discussed in detail in the report, the Current Population Survey's overall
turnout rate of 54.2 percent is higher than the "official" turnout rate of
49.8 percent, as reported by the Clerk of the House.
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more than 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the
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