My team attempt to answer the question: How can the United States Increase its Voter Turnout? We present our research as well as provide recommendations for successful strategies.
2. Hypothesis
By understanding the needs of voters across the country we can better target voters with a combination of
policy, technology, and education to improve voter turnout rates.
● Based on data we know that a mixed approach of policy, technology, and education will lead to
higher voter participation rates.
● Increasing voting participation in an unbiased manner will ensure trust and transparency within the
electoral process.
● To meet the needs of all voters it is necessary to give personalized recommendations based on the
needs of each voter segment.
FEC Voter participation proposal:
The Federal Election Commision Voter Participation
Assignment
FEC is looking for Insights into voter registration and turnout across the country
and recommendations for improvement.
9. Bottom 5 states
1. Hawaii 39.5%
2. Arkansas 41.3%
3. Oklahoma 42.1%
4. West Virginia 42.5%
5. Washington D.C 43.7%
US average turnout 50%
Top 5 States
1. Minnesota 64.2%
2. Wisconsin 61.4%
3. Colorado 61.4%
4. Montana 61.3%
5. Oregon 61.2%
22. Total Non-voting in
2018(registered to vote)
population:
29,089
Common reasons for not voting
1. Too busy conflicting:
26.9%
2. Not Interested:
15.5%
3. Illness or Disability:
12.8%
23. ● Voatz developed an app that would
allow users to vote securely from
anywhere in the world
● Since its debut in 2018, Voatz has
run several pilot projects aimed
largely at deployed service
members
● 600 votes across federal elections
in Denver, West Virginia and five
counties in Oregon, Utah and
Washington State.
30. Streamline voter
registration
1. Automatic voter registration
2. Same-day voter registration
3. Preregistration
4. Online registration
Make voting more
convenient
1. Early voting:
2. No-excuse absentee voting:
3. Vote-at-home with vote centers:
4. Compulsory voting
Ensure informed
electorate and
accessible voting
1. Provide sufficient resources in elections to ensure voting is
accessible
2. Restore rights for formerly incarcerated people:
3. Strengthen civics education in schools:
4. Invest in integrated voter engagement and outreach:
Mixed approach is necessary increase voter participation
Segment A:
Ages (35-44)(45-64), (65+)
Location South
Turnout: 45%-60% (52%)
Segment B:
Ages (18-24), (25-34),
Location West, WN Central
Turnout: 25%-40% (32.5%)
Segment C:
Ages (18-24), (25-34)
Location South, mid atlantic
Turnout: 20%-35% (27.5%)
31. Segment A:
Ages (35-44)(45-64),
Location South
Turnout: 45%-60%
Streamline voter
registration
● Automatic voter registration: if every state implemented Oregon’s model of AVR, more
than 22 million registered voters could be added to state voter rolls in just the first year.
Based on this analysis, one could expect more than 7.9 million new voters nationwide
Make voting more
convenient
● Early voting: : One study found that early voting can increase participation by about 2 to
4 percent. Eliminating early voting decreases turnout in communities of color.
Ensure informed
electorate and
accessible voting
● Restore rights for formerly incarcerated people: being equal, if all formerly incarcerated
people had their rights restored, there could have been more than 914,000 additional
voters during the 2016 elections
32. Segment B:
Ages (18-24), (25-34),
Location West, WN Central
Turnout: 25%-40%
Streamline voter
registration ● Online registration: study on Georgia’s online voter registration system found that 71% of
those who registered online turned out to vote, compared with 48% and 52% of those
registering by mail or through a state agency
Make voting more
convenient ● Compulsory voting: a few countries with higher voter turnout than US have compulsory
voting - which means they have a law making it illegal not to vote. Although many people
may view such laws as infringing upon their freedoms, compulsory voting is rarely enforced
and is really just used just as another away to get people vote by and encouraging the idea
of voting as a civil duty
Ensure informed
electorate and
accessible voting
● Provide sufficient resources in elections to ensure voting is accessible - Lack of convenient
polling places and registrar offices also has been a problem for Native American would-be
voters. Thirty-two percent of unregistered Native Americans in South Dakota and 26 percent
in Nevada cited long distances from voter registrar’s offices as one of the reasons that they
decided not to register.
33. Segment C:
Ages (18-24), (25-34)
Location South, mid atlantic
Turnout: 20%-35% (27.5%)
Streamline voter
registration ● Same-day voter registration - estimates show SDR boost participation for young
people—ages 18 to 25—by 12 percent as well as by 7.5 percent and 11 percent for
African Americans and Latinos, respectively
● Preregistration: In Florida, pre-registration laws have been found to improve youth
voting participation by 4.7 percentage points.14
Make voting more
convenient
● Vote-at-home with vote centers: Colorado’s model increased voter participation in the
state by about 2-5 percent after the state implemented vote-at-home, participation
increased by 9 percent for Coloradans ages 18 to 34
Ensure informed
electorate and
accessible voting
● Strengthen civics education in schools: a study of Kids Voting USA in Kansas found that
voter participation was 2.1 percent higher for both 18-year-olds and their parents in
Kansas counties that incorporated Kids Voting into school curricula .21
34. By understanding the needs of voters across the country we can better
target voters with a combination of policy, technology, and education to improve
voter turnout rates.
