Rock the Vote or Block the Vote? How the Cost of Voting Affects the Voting Behavior of American Youth

Part of Special Symposium on Election Sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID6179458
AuthorsCourtney L Juelich (0000-0001-9197-2291, University of Iowa), Joseph A Coll (0000-0002-2795-6542, University of Iowa, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume48
Issue6
Pages719-724
Publication date2020-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Politics Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1532673x20920265
OpenAlexW3032162695
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited30

Young voters make up the largest portion of the electorate but vote at the lowest rates of any age group. While scholars have studied how culture affects youth political participation, few studies have analyzed how institutional barriers affect youth voting—even though these laws have been found to affect turnout of other disadvantaged groups. Considering younger citizens are more likely to be non-habitual voters with less political knowledge, efficacy, and resources, it is possible that these laws have magnified effects for youths. This could explain why new voters, facing new restrictions to voting, are participating at lower percentages than youths of earlier cohorts. Using the 2004–2016 Current Population Survey ( N = 360,000) and the Cost of Voting Index to test the effects of restrictive electoral environments on youth turnout, we find that restrictive environments disproportionately hurt young voters by decreasing the probability they turn out by 16 percentage points, compared with older voters

Demographic economics · Disadvantaged · Economics · Group voting ticket · Political science · Politics · Population · Ranked voting system · Sociology · Spoilt vote · Turnout · Voting · Voting behavior · Demography · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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