Rock the Vote or Block the Vote? How the Cost of Voting Affects the Voting Behavior of American Youth

Abstract

Young voters make up the largest portion of the electorate but vote at the lowest rates of any age group. While scholars have studied how culture affects youth political participation, few studies have analyzed how institutional barriers affect youth voting—even though these laws have been found to affect turnout of other disadvantaged groups. Considering younger citizens are more likely to be non-habitual voters with less political knowledge, efficacy, and resources, it is possible that these laws have magnified effects for youths. This could explain why new voters, facing new restrictions to voting, are participating at lower percentages than youths of earlier cohorts. Using the 2004–2016 Current Population Survey ( N = 360,000) and the Cost of Voting Index to test the effects of restrictive electoral environments on youth turnout, we find that restrictive environments disproportionately hurt young voters by decreasing the probability they turn out by 16 percentage points, compared with older voters.

Electoral Double-Bind: How Electoral Environments Affect Racial and Ethnic Youth Voting Behavior

“…However, electoral reforms do not affect all voters equally (Hanmer 2009;Herron and Smith 2014;Juelich and Coll 2020;Leighley and Nagler 2013;Ritter and Tolbert 2020). Different voters have different levels of participatory resources (e.g., time, money, and civics skills) and mobilizing forces that shape their ability and willingness to participate (Hill and Leighley 1999;Leighley 2001;Plutzer 2002;Rosenstone and Hansen 2003;Verba, Schlozman and Brady 1995), leading to different effects of electoral reforms on voter turnout.…”

Begin Again: Election Campaign and Own Opinions Among First‐Time Voters in Romania

“…Informative campaigns include rich content, which comes in two forms: objective information about facts and policies and subjective information-in the form of cues-that are intended to persuade voters. First-time voters who feel that campaigns are informative will use them as main source of information (Juelich and Coll, 2020) and rarely use alternative sources. A well-documented campaign helps people argue their belief, especially when personalizing messages are used and this is more likely to influence voting (Lawrence et al, 2016).…”

Finding DORI: Using Item Response Theory to Measure Difficulty of Registration in the U.S. and Its Impact on Voters

“…We know that registration imposes time and information costs on would-be voters and can depress turnout (Wolfinger & Rosenstone, 1980; Highton, 1997; Springer, 2012; Leighley & Nagler, 2014; Holbein & Hillygus, 2016; Stockemer & Rocher, 2017; Grumbach & Hill, 2020). Indeed, it has long been established that higher costs of voting in general is associated with lower turnout (e.g., Riker & Ordeshook, 1968) with recent empirical showing that states that impose higher overall costs of voting see lower turnout, particularly among young voters (Juelich & Coll, 2020). When states ease registration costs, through preregistration (e.g., Holbein & Hillygus, 2016), EDR (e.g., Grumbach & Hill, 2020), or portability (e.g., McDonald, 2008), turnout tends to increase among young voters.…”

“…In the first step toward casting a ballot, particularly difficult procedures can lead would-be voters to misstep, get confused, and experience problems registering to vote. Thus, since registration is a cost that affects all voters (e.g., Juelich & Coll, 2020), those living in high DORI states should be more likely to experience problems when registering to vote. But it is young voters who are most substantially affected by the ease or difficulty of a states’ registration regime.…”

“…How do states differ in the difficultly of voter registration procedures, and what effect does this have on voters? Extant research typically examines the effect of specific registration dimensions on turnout, such as preregistration (e.g., Holbein & Hillygus, 2016), deadlines (e.g., Grumbach & Hill, 2020), or portability (e.g., McDonald, 2008), or examines the overall costs of voting on turnout, which does not distinguish between registration and voting procedures (e.g., Juelich & Coll, 2020). Indeed, when scholars have attempted to measure registration difficulty, they have typically done so with indices that include both registration and voting laws (e.g., Li, Pomante, and Schraufnagel 2018; Hill & Leighley, 1999; King, 1994).…”