"The raffish epigraphs of a comic, George Carlin, and a poet, W.B. Yeats, set the tone for this exciting, revelatory and altogether important work. The question: Why are there so many no-shows on Election Day? Thirty thoughtful Americans-as good a cross section as you can get-tell us in a varied and astonishing manner." -Studs Terkel, author "So much has been said (with so little knowledge) about America′s nonvoting majority. This intriguing book at last introduces us to the people who do not vote, dispels many of the myths about them, and shows us the depth of their disconnection from the political process. Through their revealing interviews and compelling conclusions, Jack C. Doppelt and Ellen Shearer illuminate the varied reasons that so many Americans find so little meaning in politics. Nonvoters shows us the futility of current efforts to woo nonvoters; it also enables us for the first time to understand how complex and deep-seated this important issue is." -Geneva Overholser, Washington Post syndicated columnist "Fascinating and important. This book gives us new and significant insights." -Paul Simon, Former United States Senator "Jack C. Doppelt and Ellen Shearer have brought the energy and open minds that mark the best reporters to look at the other half, at the 51% majority of the electorate who chose to stay away from the polls in 1996. They found "a Pandora′s box of dueling realities" that call into question the easy assumptions about nonvoters—that they′re low-income, poorly educated, and generally uninformed. The reality turns out to be considerably more complicated. The authors and their dispersed across the country to talk to the nonvoters themselves. Their voices ring through this thoughtful book." -Susan Page, White House Bureau Chief, USA TODAY, and President, White House Correspondents′ Association In Nonvoters: America′s No-Shows, Doppelt and Shearer reveal the findings of their national survey and interviews with nonvoting Americans. Though they discovered a diverse array of opinions and reasons for not voting, they also found that nonvoters clustered into five types: "doers," "unpluggeds," "irritables," "don′t knows," and "alienateds." This book contains the stories of the people who don′t vote as well as the authors′ analyses of this troubling phenomenon in American politics. The authors consider voting behavior in local, off-year, and presidential elections, debunking the myths of why the majority of Americans decide to be "no shows" on election day. This groundbreaking study and insightful perspectives of 30 representative nonvoters will prove fascinating to anyone interested in politics and human behavior, whether as part of a campaign′s dialogue, a classroom study, or a living room discussion.

This book addresses the issue of why 51.2% of the population of the USA failed to vote in the November 1996 presidential election. Through polls and studies conducted in the spring and summer of 1996, the contributors set out to answer the following questions: what were the 51.2 percent doing that day? Who are they? Why didn't they vote? The results are summarized into five types of nonvoters: doers, unplugged, irritable, don't knows and alienated.

A diverse body of research exists to explain why eligible voters don't go to the polls on election day. Theories span from the psychological (nonvoters have limited emotional engagement with politics and therefore lack motivation), to the social (politics is inherently social and nonvoters have limited networks), and the personal (nonvoters tend to be young, less educated, poor, and highly mobile). Other scholars suggest that people don't vote because campaigns are uninspiring. This book poses a new theory: uncertainty about the national context at the time of the election. During times of national crisis, when uncertainty is high, citizens are motivated to sort through information about each candidate to figure out which would best mitigate their uncertainty. When external uncertainty is low, however, citizens spend less time learning about candidates and are equally unmotivated to vote. The American Nonvoter examines how uncertainty regarding changing economic conditions, dramatic national events, and U.S. international interventions influences people's decisions whether to vote or not. Using rigorous statistical tools and rich historical stories, Lyn Ragsdale and Jerrold G. Rusk test this theory on aggregate nonvoting patterns in the United States across presidential and midterm elections from 1920 to 2012. The authors also challenge the stereotype of nonvoters as poor, uneducated and apathetic. Instead, the book shows that nonvoters are, by and large, as politically knowledgeable as voters, but see no difference between candidates or view them negatively.

A diverse body of research exists to explain why eligible voters don't go to the polls on election day. Theories span from the psychological (nonvoters have limited emotional engagement with politics and therefore lack motivation), to the social (politics is inherently social and nonvoters have limited networks), and the personal (nonvoters tend to be young, less educated, poor, and highly mobile). Other scholars suggest that people don't vote because campaigns are uninspiring. This book poses a new theory: uncertainty about the national context at the time of the election. During times of national crisis, when uncertainty is high, citizens are motivated to sort through information about each candidate to figure out which would best mitigate their uncertainty. When external uncertainty is low, however, citizens spend less time learning about candidates and are equally unmotivated to vote. The American Nonvoter examines how uncertainty regarding changing economic conditions, dramatic national events, and U.S. international interventions influences people's decisions whether to vote or not. Using rigorous statistical tools and rich historical stories, Lyn Ragsdale and Jerrold G. Rusk test this theory on aggregate nonvoting patterns in the United States across presidential and midterm elections from 1920 to 2012. The authors also challenge the stereotype of nonvoters as poor, uneducated and apathetic. Instead, the book shows that nonvoters are, by and large, as politically knowledgeable as voters, but see no difference between candidates or view them negatively.

Who Votes Now? compares the demographic characteristics and political views of voters and nonvoters in American presidential elections since 1972 and examines how electoral reforms and the choices offered by candidates influence voter turnout. Drawing on a wealth of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and the American National Election Studies, Jan Leighley and Jonathan Nagler demonstrate that the rich have consistently voted more than the poor for the past four decades, and that voters are substantially more conservative in their economic views than nonvoters. They find that women are now more likely to vote than men, that the gap in voting rates between blacks and whites has largely disappeared, and that older Americans continue to vote more than younger Americans. Leighley and Nagler also show how electoral reforms such as Election Day voter registration and absentee voting have boosted voter turnout, and how turnout would also rise if parties offered more distinct choices. Providing the most systematic analysis available of modern voter turnout, Who Votes Now? reveals that persistent class bias in turnout has enduring political consequences, and that it really does matter who votes and who doesn't.

Discusses declining voter participation in recent Presidential elections. The report places recent declines in historical perspective by examining voter participation in each of the Presidential elections from the early days of the country to th.

More Americans now identify as political independents than as either Democrats or Republicans. Tired of the two-party gridlock, the pandering, and the lack of vision, they've turned in increasing numbers to independent and third-party candidates. In 1998, for the first time in decades, a third-party candidate who was not a refugee from one of the two major parties, Jesse Ventura, won election to state-wide office, as the governor of Minnesota. In 2000, the public was riveted by the Reform Party's implosion over Patrick Buchanan's presidential candidacy and by Ralph Nader's Green Party run, which infuriated many Democrats but energized hundreds of thousands of disaffected voters in stadium-sized super-rallies.What are the prospects for new third-party efforts? Combining the close-in, personal reporting and learned analysis one can only get by covering this beat for years, Micah L. Sifry's. Spoiling for a Fight exposes both the unfair obstacles and the viable opportunities facing today's leading independent parties. Third-party candidates continue be denied a fighting chance by discriminatory ballot access, unequal campaign financing, winner-take-all races, and derisive media coverage. Yet, after years of grassroots organizing, third parties are making major inroads. At the local level, efforts like Chicago's New Party and New York's Working Families Party have upset urban political machines while gaining positions on county councils and school boards. Third-party activists are true believers in democracy, and if America's closed two-party system is ever to be reformed, it will be thanks to their efforts