Voting Rates of the American Poor

In The Working Poor, David Shipler reports that in the 2000 presidential election only 38 percent of

Americans with incomes less than $10,000 voted compared to 75 percent of those with incomes over

$75,000. (278) These sorts of statistics are not limited to 2000. In the six elections from 1980 to 2000,

the average voter turnout of people in the bottom fifth of the income quintiles was 53 percent, while

the top fifth averaged over 80 percent (“Election Results”). For the bottom fifth, the average household

income was under $11,500 during each election year. The top fifth averaged an income close to

$118,000 (DeNavas-Walt, et al.). The 2004 election was no different with 55 percent of the votes cast

by people with incomes of $50,000 and up. That means over half of the votes cast were by a group that

controls 70 percent of the nation’s wealth. In every election since 1964, when these statistics were first

recorded, the South has had a lower voter turnout than the other three major regions. The South has

also consistently had the highest poverty rate of the four regions. On average, there is a twenty-five to

thirty percentage-point gap between the turnouts of the lowest and highest income quintiles in the

United States (Cevrantes and Gluckman).

Though it is clear the poor generally don’t vote, the reasons for this are not so clear. Education

seems to be biggest factor. Less than 40 percent of citizens without a high school degree voted in the

2000 election, compared with an 80 percent turnout for those with an advanced degree. The

percentages rise with more education. A connection to poverty can be drawn when considering that

over 13 percent of workers without a high school degree are in poverty, compared with only about 1

percent of workers with a college degree. It should be noted these statistics concern only workers, and

not the unemployed. As a United States census report noted, “Those with a high school education or

less were more likely than those with more education to respond that they were not interested in the

election or felt their vote would not make a difference.”

Even more significant among the poor than the feeling that their vote will not make a difference is

the feeling their vote may not be counted. Claims of voting irregularities, true or not, often keep the

poor away from the polls. A large bloc of poor Americans disenfranchise themselves out of the fear of

being disenfranchised. With a mindset that their vote will just be erased after leaving, the poor avoid