Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a couple of questions why do almost half of americans not vote and what does this say about the legitimacy of americas leaders and political system lets get to the bottom line. America prides itself as one of the worlds great democracies in a vibrant democracy everyone has a say in how theyre governed so how can we explain why more than 100000000 americans simply dont vote more than 40 percent of the eligible population and why does america rank almost dead last when it comes to turnout rates in developed countries what does this disengagement mean for the policies and legislation in this country and what does it mean for the future of americas democracy fortunately were joined by people who have the answers to these questions in Miami Florida event alexander a director at the Knight Foundation which published a landmark study on american nonvoters last month named the 100000000 project in washington d. C. Ted johnson a senior fellow at the Brennan Center which focuses on reforming the country systems of democracy and justice and in new york Kellan Edmonson the field director of head count which works to register voters to promote participation in democracy thank you all very much for joining us let me just start out showing this one graphic fascinating to me anyway it shows that in the 2016 race Hillary Clinton received 28. 00 and a half percent of the popular vote the United States donald trump received 27. 3 percent but those that didnt vote are 41. 3 percent so the nonvoters women in that in that particular case and i would figure that thats pretty distressing and yvette i know that you have conducted this study funded by the Knight Foundation that began to look at this question of why in this democracy which is the sort of looks at itself is the premier democracy in the world in the United States why are people not voting. Thats right the gap between the United States and other developed democracies as you mentioned really stood out to the Knight Foundation this isnt a new issue its been ongoing for for a decade but we also noticed that we actually dont understand much about the population that doesnt vote a lot of our political polling and other political ideas are often focused on those who come most often to the polls because theyre seen as the ones who influence the election result but actually by virtue of their lack of participation so to nonvoters and we actually know very little about them so the study focused on that you know giving them a voice to tell us why they dont engage with the system what they think about politics what they think about 2020 and we surveyed almost 12000 chronic nonvoters that was the largest study of its kind well i noticed in one of the graphs you have in this study its a large and fascinating study of that you have a list at least among those that are not voting that theyre just not interested that they dont care and secondly that they dont feel their vote matters what are some of the other reasons that you found that voters arent engaged. So there are a myriad of reasons why voters and particular groups of voters are left and gauged some of them are institutional some of them are behavioral because of course were not born knowing how to vote or valuing that that action so its something that we learn along the way and in the report we ask people why they dont vote and we have their answers on that we also compared certain attitudes and behaviors amongst nonvoters with those activities that we have some insights there as well so when we ask voters why they dont vote that these are folks who are eligible to vote but dont they tell us a variety of reasons the top most cited ones were that they. They arent interested in politics that they somehow feel that their vote doesnt matter and then 9 the other and they dont like the candidate that was another big big reason for non voters they simply dont like the candidates and a lot of activity are still the same as well but they still participate so when we when we drill down to look at some key differences we found in the study we found that there were across demographic groups there were large differences in terms of the levels of trust that that folks have in the election so nonvoters were much less likely to trust that the elections represent the will of the people only about half of the voters felt that the Election Results were even valid which is a large percentage and then we also found that that they have a lower engagement with news and information so a lot activities are much more likely to be consuming news and political information nonvoters not as much actively seeking that out instead relying on bumping into it as they go about their day from social media or friends and family other stories right you know to kill women to kill when youre out trying to recruit people get them registered to vote get them engaged ted youve been writing about this issue of you know particularly looking at race and other demographic issues which is that just mentioned looking at the dynamics there of whats not. Connecting are what may be connecting in people to say im done with it what is the right way to look at this question of looking at demographics and what why it matters that we bring either youth or black americans or latino americans and others into the voting pool why arent they motivated on their own why do they need a push from you callen. So from us one thing we really are looking at is the disengagement of the youth and one thing we really want to kind of focus in on is really why and i think theres a lot of things that have that said about why that really contribute to this but number one at the top of the list i think. You know when im out in the field when we have volunteers on the field they go out and they talk to folks and the a lot of common response for folks that say that they dont come out and vote is i just dont vote and im not engaged in the system and so a lot of what that said and so my response and i think a lot of what our volunteers do in the field as well is really talk to them and say you know im not looking into im not going to talk to you as to you know try to convince you or trying to tell you that its important to come out and vote on election day but i think its good for you to be registered just in case just in case theres an issue or theres a candidate that you become really really interested in that might come down the line well let me ask you a question about it because recently in one of the debates between joe biden and Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders made it seem calm and he said you know with older voters theres just no doubt that joe biden represents their interests and their aspirations but that he said i Bernie Sanders have the future of the nation supporting me i have the Younger Generation that supports where i am and im fascinated by that is there is 0 sum game thats going on between the youth in the country and the elderly a raise the interesting question of why those that are 50 and over would want to support those youth coming in because they seem to be pointing in Different Directions politically im trying to understand i know that many people look at this moral responsibility in a National Responsibility to democracy to bring in as many as possible but it raises the question of conflicting interests. Yes definitely and i think there needs to be more conversation among them theres a huge chasm chasm right now within the Democratic Party and so i think what youre seeing is these 2 different sides warring. You know you have the Progressive Side and the moderate side and i really think just more open in basic conversation there really needs to be kind of a negotiation among those groups not just within Democratic Party politics but i think that larger conversations among young folks and older folks so that you know people can come to the table both sides understand what issues are important to them and then coming to a compromise as people as citizens of the United States to you know really create a vision to move really Creative Vision that i think makes sense for both sides right now ted i think you have a different take on some of this both on on you know the issues that you know if you look at black voters in america that they can be highly informed they can understand why but they have chosen not to participate and im interested in you breaking that down for us. So its like both very simple and complicated the 1st thing is the story of black people in the United States is a story of voter disenfranchisement whether being unable to vote while enslaved and then after the 13th 14th 15th amendments are passed black men at least are given the right to vote and within a decade of the compromise they can 77 in a bunch of historical events remove black people from the voter rolls and then terror is essentially used to ensure that even though the right to vote exists but im out here just for a 2nd to add can you remind people of the history that after the civil war at that time black participation was huge black participation and membership within the United States senate and the house of representatives was enormous in the house i just want to punctuate that its a very important part of American History that many people dont remember. Thats absolutely right so the 13th amendment abolishing slavery the 14th amendment essentially makes those formerly enslaved people citizens in the 15th amendment extends the access to the ballot for those folks and when they begin voting more than 90 percent of black americans at that time are in the south and black men being and franchise completely reconfigures political power in the south and now you have a formerly enslaved black people that are arriving in congress in state assemblies and local office having been duly voted by the citizenry to be there about a decade later certainly around 87677 rather for behaviors is running for the white house against Samuel Tilden these 2 theres another tour college dispute and the compromise of 877 is when the Republican Party the party of lincoln removes federal protection from the south and allows the states in the deep south to now begin to disenfranchise black americans and we get jim crow being ushered in so what we have here is a history of the nie and the right to vote for black people and even after the Voting Rights act of 1985 as we see in enormous rise in black Voter Participation we then see in the last 5 years a reversal of many of these Voting Rights protections following some Supreme Court decisions so from the very beginning when slavery ends through to today there has been voter purges oppression and all these attempts to remove black folks from the rolls that have an effect on morale drives dont you know i get all of that and i appreciate you making it so clear what i dont understand is that despite Voter Suppression strategies which we may discuss despite the legacy and the you know the impact on morale why many black voters who have so much on the line are more engaged they are because we saw they became engaged they were a key factor in Barack Obamas election and they floated very high and in todays elect i mean i think in todays allow. After a race that we see going on right now the pursuit of the black voter as head as an Inflection Point a potential and selection point is so high so to go back to events. In a fascinating study what are the dynamics there many people say theyre just overwhelmed by the information theyre not like professional political followers or they look at the system is corrupt are there things in the dynamics of that that can be tweaked to bring various ethnic communities more into the game yes a little. Go ahead lets go to ted and then yvette. So i absolutely its true that you can the biggest thing is you can get candidates that are that inspire voters that mobilize voters throughout reach through descriptive representation and by reaching out to the specific communities that are putting people in office who look like them who have a similar shared experience that often inspires people to go to the polls this is what we saw with barack obama and 2012 black Voter Participation was at about 66 and a half percent and then in 2016 for a number of reasons it dropped 7 points the 1st time its dropped in 20 years but heres the thing black vote black nonvoters very much like white nonvoters that is to say the american non voting population the reasons for not voting may stem from different places but the rationale for deciding not to participate is very similar and so there is not a special reason why were seeing black people not going to the polls its the same reason that theyre not seeing from their government what they expect that are not enthusiastic about the candidates and in this way black folks are just americans and that. Yeah i would very much agree with that based on what we heard from the study you know just linking a few things weve talked about in terms of demographics and also news and information so you know we know that voting participation rates are highly correlated with your level of education and your level of income and of course those have some racial demographics that are associated with them so you know if youre in more of your upper income if youre have a College Degree or higher youre were way more likely to vote and if youre an africanamerican voter with a College Degree youre very likely to vote unfortunately like our our society looks a little bit you know disproportionate that way in terms of who holds College Degrees but i think you know if that changes that that will have a great impact on more representative voting participation and then also there is a sense like as you mentioned of not being inspired by candidates that was the number one reason for black voters as well as as as white voters and hispanics so thats just a pervasive feeling the other thing that we heard a lot of is just not feeling like the the decisions made in washington impact your life or that the candidates are going to carry through on the promises made on the campaign trail so i think that we we have an educational duty both in you know our secondary School System but also for our Adult Population on you know how and why decisions made in washington can impact our communities our families our lives and what is the Value Proposition for taking the time and effort to participate and then the news and information from again people who dont hold a College Degree theyre more likely to be overwhelming information or or not know where to go and of course they have very civically engaged people who dont hold College Degrees but by and large there is a bit of an association there so we see that the way that people consume news and information when you compare nonvoters and voters just kind of different theyre a little bit more weighted towards entertainment we have were a generation thats like now and theres a lot of streaming media a lot of streaming entertainment at our fingertips the news isnt exactly always in that stream or if were scrolling through school. The media we might see news articles but theres competition with other things catching our interest our people might be just reading headlines a lot of the times when we when we look at young people theyre even more likely to display some of these behaviors of news and information so a great challenge Going Forward is how to allow populations who arent really having a traditional news consumers experience the feeling of being informed on key political issues without having to drastically change their behavior or their media i mean i know youre youre in part the Knight Foundation is related to the you know miami herald in the legacy of of media down there thats a whole nother show we need to get into is the impact of media because helen let me ask you a question here im interested in whether fear and anger are. The drivers of what we saw before and whether that needs to happen with the youth vote as well because clearly i think some of the use of own interests have been eroded in this time. Definitely i think there is certainly a lot of credibility to that statement that it was fear and anger that brought people out to the polls in 2016. And i think in 2020 youre seeing a lot of young people rally around someone like Bernie Sanders because he also i think more so than anger i think he brings out a certain passion that is really really key and i think people see especially young people see that is extremely genuine. And so for us that headcount what we really want want to focus on is just allowing those young people to embrace that passion and so that same passion that they might bring to a meet to a you know artist or their favorite band maybe seeing that translate over to. You know a certain candidate or certain i think youth in this country have done a great job of bracing some awesome issues you saw in 28 teen with what happened Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School right well i should remind the global audience that was the massive gun incident many young People Killed and then a Major Movement that grew out of that yes to to establish gun policies yes so i think just the i think just the you know march for a lives in headcount actually had a presence there with a large activation rightly registered you know a ton of people to vote but you see the young people embrace those issues such as gun control and also you know climate the crowd Climate Crisis thats currently about how tough is your job now callen in the age of the coronavirus when i remember when i was in college m. T. V. And rock the vote were the way to get out you go to big concerts and parties and register you around people it was a social experience especially sensually to draw young people. Into into voting does that harm your ability to go out and do the kinds of things youre doing now is that the coronavirus has become a damper on building those connections and creating that momentum thats a great question steve and over the course of 16 years with headcount weve established some wonderful partnerships with artists and other corporate sponsors and that has allowed us to despite not having a presence on the ground thats really allowed us to in this very difficult and kind of unprecedented time really expand our Online Presence and really looking into getting people to vote through a digital means in 2018 headcounts headcount registered over 60000 voters and actually 2 thirds of those of those voters registered were through online means and so we already have an existing infrastructure to ensure that folks are still getting registered online and were really looking into other ways that people can come out and exercise their right to vote whether thats through absentee voting looking at. Kind of putting make creating a beginners guide so that folks can come out. And exercise their right to vote through that means rather than having to go to the polls as youve seen there have been 2 primaries now that have been postponed due to the coronavirus and so. Getting back to your question steve those states are georgia in louisiana by the way and steve getting back to your question though it has though our bread and butter really is having boots on the ground and working with. Concert goers you know at the Grassroots Level also through Community Events as well. You know we really dont see any loss in momentum because we really do see this as a great opportunity to in our. Events what were doing the right thing 10 of it im going to ask you the same question about the impact of coronavirus you know that ted when i when i look. At some of the Voter Suppression activities that are just clear as day in georgia when you which is sort of seem to be the poster child if you will for trying to keep people off the rolls and removing them from the rolls and im fascinated by this notion that if you dont use your vote you lose it youre struck youre stricken off the voter rolls but im also just in in our last couple minutes youre just interested in how you see whether the coronavirus is something that is sort of mountable by a community youve been writing in thinking about or whether this is going to portend a continuation of what we have today which is really another block on voting is it something that you think the black community can overcome. So it of the tent alternately the answer is yes but the level of difficulty will depend on the states and the secretary of state that the that decide how these polls will be conducted if you look at all of the data if you live in a black area your wait times are long 34 hours there are less polling districts theyre further away from you there have been a number of efforts to try to restrict the types of accepted i. D. s to close polling stations for an a myriad of reasons and so if corona provide a secretary of state that wants to suppress the black vote another opportunity to do so would not be surprised if the secretary of state take that opportunity right that said black voter turnout while it may be more difficult for these communities to vote the research is still up in the air own right just how much successful how successful it can be we saw in the special right in the toy election that black voters overcame Voter Suppression met right in law in large quantities in order to see the republican candidates in a democratic senator to from alabama for the 1st time and some some years thank you yvette im going to give you the last word you you did the anchor study here i encourage people to take a look at it but id ask you guys i know youre an analyst and youre looking at behaviors not this is a predicting how things are go but given i think the you know a combination of apathy or people you know seeing the system is corrupt or that its too overwhelming or that it doesnt really that their vote doesnt matter as you look at this coronavirus period what do you have any insights on what the collective system might be done to to to salvage electoral participation in a time like this. Well this is outside my area of expertise but i will ill offer a few thoughts based on what we saw in the studies so we know that you know disengagement with news and information around politics specifically is correlated with a lack of participation and i do think everyones attention now has shifted from you know the primary inspiration in the election and on to the front of iris crisis though it will be interesting to see you know how how attention can shift back to whats happening in politics and gearing up for 2020 and gathering peoples attention there and then the other thing i would say is that this might actually serve to help folks see the impact that decisions made in washington might have on their personal lives and communities so i will have to see if that if that has an effect well event thank you so much for the study id like to thank you all for being with us in Miami Florida event alexander from the Knight Foundation in washington d. C. Ted johnson from the Brennan Center and in new york Helen Edmonson from the Voter Registration Organization Headcount thanks so much so whats the bottom line democracy is a balancing act and america has made up a very different audiences some are apathetic and just not engaged some dont feel their vote counts and they talk about things like the Electoral College which we didnt get into in this show but it matters some dont vote because they find the logistics too much to deal with and others feel like theyre harassed as if their vote is not welcome but by sitting out on the sidelines you deserve what you get and you may not like the results and thats the bottom line. The cost of morale day is a magnet for the rich and famous it highlights the most beautiful beaches in all of europe but ive come here to investigate a dock a side. 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Is saying americans should be ready for a rough 2 weeks ahead as the corona virus continues to spread just one week ago President Donald Trump suggested the country should be back in business by mid april now hes urging everyone to heed official guidelines i want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead were going to go through a very tough 2 weeks and then hopefully as the experts are predicting as i think a lot of
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