Balloting Problems Persist, But Were Voters Turned Off?

A major examination of the voting process reports that millions of registered voters were turned away last year. But were voters turned off?

The Cooperative Congressional Election Survey is expected to report that four to five million people didn't get to vote, either because of registration problems or because they didn't get their absentee ballots, according to The New York Times. That's a huge number of people, although still less than 4 percent of the 131 million who cast ballots. The election survey, a collaboration between researchers at 30 universities, questions voters on problems they faced in the past election.

One of the most critical issues is whether these ballot problems strike at confidence in the election system. In Public Agenda's Voter Experience Survey, conducted right after the 2008 election, we focused on the emotional reaction people had to voting. Were they frustrated or energized? Confident that their votes would be counted or doubtful? Was voting a hassle, a civic duty, or an honor?

We surveyed people who actually succeeded in voting, and overwhelming numbers said they had a positive experience at the polls. Nine in 10, for example, said their experience was positive and that poll workers did a good job overall.

In fact, polling places got good marks compared to other institutions where people transact business in person. More people (79 percent) rated their polling place as “very-organized” - a better rating than that given to survey participants' local bank (78 percent), post office (65 percent), Department of Motor Vehicles (54 percent) or fast food franchise (35 percent).

Low-income voters were more dissatisfied with their polling places, however, and twice as likely to say their poll workers couldn't answer questions (18 percent compared to 7 percent for the general public). Whether your candidate won also factors in here; more McCain voters said they were dissatisfied than did Obama voters.

There are two intriguing points in our survey. First, we found that the voters we surveyed, very few of whom reported witnessing problems personally, still worry about the system as a whole.

Only 8 percent, for example, doubted the accuracy of the results at their own polling place. But when asked about the situation nationwide, we found 62 percent were concerned there were organized efforts to register people who weren’t eligible, 55 percent were concerned some people who are registered may not have been allowed to vote, and 53 percent were concerned that some people were not allowed to register.

So there are concerns about the legitimacy of the election system, but they're not limited to the people who were turned away, as reported in the CCES survey. These concerns are much broader among voters, and they're driven more by perceptions of problems elsewhere and media coverage, rather than personal experience.

The second intriguing point is that these concerns also don't seem to be turning voters away from civic engagement. In fact, on the whole, the American public came away from the election primed for greater participation, according to our survey. Some 87 percent say they feel like they are a part of democracy when they vote, 73 percent say their vote made a difference in this election, and 71 percent say they feel guilty when they don’t vote. Six in 10 said they would stay as involved in their communities as in the past, and more than half expected to say interested in politics – even the McCain voters, who were disappointed in the results.

Problems with the voting system are a gravely serious matter. Every vote should count, and every vote should be counted as cast. Four to five million is a lot of votes, even if it works out to a small percentage of total turnout. The fact that substantial numbers of the public question the overall accuracy of the system, even though they personally haven't faced problems, should give policymakers pause.

But the fact that this concern doesn't deter most Americans from being enthusiastic about getting involved in their communities and in civic life should be heartening news indeed. Because the nation's problems can't be solved without an engaged, active public.