Why we don’t bother to vote

Published 6:45 am Monday, March 3, 2008

OLYMPIA – This election, nearly 700,000 residents of Snohomish and King counties who can vote, won’t.

They’ll let others decide whether to kill a state gas tax increase and if a statewide ban on smoking in public places should become law.

They’ll be silent as a majority of members are elected to the County Council and mayors are chosen for the biggest cities. They won’t weigh in on proposed levies for fire service or annexations by cities.

Missing this election may be an anomaly for some veteran voters. Many of those choosing to sit on the sidelines, along with tens of thousands of voting-age county residents who do not register, are acting with purpose, say academics, researchers and those in the business of politics.

At their core, these potential voters perceive no link between the decisions and their lives. They’re distrustful of government, wary of those running it and convinced nothing will change when the final tally is in.

They figure “Why vote? Who cares? What is the point?”

“I think they’ve lost the spirit of ‘76,” said Harold Hochstatter, a retired Republican state legislator living in Moses Lake.

“The point is freedom,” he said. “People who want freedom will act in this civil exercise. They will wake up and say these are choices they have to make.”

That apathy is a perennial mind-bender for County Auditor Bob Terwilliger, who spends hundreds of hours each year preaching the gospel of electoral activism.

“If one needs to have a civics lesson of how important a vote can be, one need not look back any further than our governor’s race of last year,” Terwilliger said. In that battle, Gov. Christine Gregoire won by 129 votes following three ballot counts and a trial.

As of Monday, 3,500 ballots had already been returned by voters in Snohomish County.

Even so, he predicted a 54 percent turnout for the Nov. 8 election; roughly 190,900 of the county’s 353,520 registered voters. Last November, turnout was 84 percent.

“Unfortunately we have a turnout that is inversely proportional to the impact of the decisions on the voters being made by the people who will be elected this fall,” he said.

In King County, election officials are predicting 46 percent of the 1,013,208 registered voters will cast ballots either by absentee or at the polls on Nov. 8. That means more than a half-million registered voters in King County won’t bother making their voices heard.

Sermonizing that voting is an act of self-interest, a civic duty or even a moral obligation won’t convert the cynic and the skeptic, said Jane Mansbridge, the Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Participating, whether in last year’s high-stakes battle or this fall’s less glamorous election, might set the hook, she said.

“There’s no absolute cure beyond general civic involvement,” she said. “Civic involvement is not something you get by preaching at people to get involved. It is something you get by restructuring the civic involvement system.”

One barrier for nonvoters is a lack of choice, said Todd Donovan, a professor of political science at Western Washington University.

Gerrymandering of legislative districts by the Democratic and Republican parties ensures that incumbents or their anointed successors will win and imperils chances for those vying from another party.

“What’s the point? That’s hard to counter,” he said. “The problem is you don’t get enough competitive races to get people to see that it does matter.”

That feeling trickles down through nonpartisan races and issues.

Nationwide surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., support that conclusion.

“People feel a disconnect because they feel things are not going to change.” said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the nonprofit that gauges public attitudes on domestic and foreign policy issues.

“Elections provide the single best tool to shape the direction of a community and the country,” he said. “Your vote is very important and very powerful even if it doesn’t feel like it.”

Each year, state lawmakers come to campus for the Washington Student Forum.

One of the regular participants is Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-44th Dist.

“Somebody who says it (voting) doesn’t matter is ignorant about why it does matter,” he said. “I can show you how it matters for something like your kids and what kind of schools they go to. Real bread-and-butter stuff.”

Conservative radio talk show host John Carlson, a Republican who ran for governor in 2000, said every election affects people’s lives. Those unhappy or frustrated should get involved, not get out of the game, he said.

“It’s always unfortunate when people give up hope,” he said. “To say there’s nothing worth voting for is to say the right to vote is no big deal.”

Cathy Allen, a Seattle-based political consultant, spent last week talking with small groups of voters about elections. She asked them why they vote.

“The overwhelming reply was that it is the most patriotic thing they do,” she said. “One man said ‘It’s the best tie you will ever have to your democratic ancestors.’ “

Jerry Cornfield is a reporter for The Herald in Everett.