For many voters, the conventional wisdom is that there is one election every two years. It comes in November, some years will involve voting for a president, others will only involve voting for a representative or a senator. Even in presidential election years, voter turnout has hovered in the 50-55% range for the last 50 years. Turnout in those years has not topped 60% since 1968.
In off-presidential years, it is even more difficult to get voters to the ballot boxes on Election Day. In 2014, for example, turnout was approximately 36%, barely topping one out of every three people.
Unfortunately, that is not the lowest turnout number to be found in our democracy. Despite primaries occurring every two years at roughly the same time, fewer than one in three voters participate, with Georgia coming in at around 28% of the voting age population participating in the hotly contested 2016 presidential primaries. 2014 was no less dismal for our state, coming in at less than 20% of registered voters alone.
It comes as no surprise that presidential election years merit the greatest turnout – billions of dollars are spent, the personalities are larger than life, and excitement is at a fever pitch. However, as flashy as presidential elections are, the elections close to home have just as much impact, if not more, on people’s lives. Primaries in particular provide voters an opportunity to assess the candidates of their party and decide who they want to carry their banner into a general election, despite the fact that few pay enough attention to take advantage of that opportunity.
In Georgia, that could present a real problem just a week from now. On the GOP primary ballot, voters will essentially be choosing from two Trump-era Republican candidates (Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp) and a more old-school Georgia conservative (former state senator Hunter Hill). I don’t believe that Cagle and Kemp’s current messaging represents the GOP as a whole – only the loudest extremes at the furthest right of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, that is functionally a requirement for running in a Republican primary in 2018, as the most extreme members of the party are the ones who are passionate enough to turn out for a primary. In the long run, that will either a) shift the party even further to the right or b) alienate moderate Republicans. As much as I am in favor of bringing voters back to the Democratic Party, I also recognize the value of having a strong two-party system.
The Democratic Party is not exempt from this problem either. While Democratic turnout appears to be up so far in the 2018 primaries, it is still a pittance compared to Democratic turnout in general elections. Not only does our party have two fantastic candidates at the top of the ticket, there are an unprecedented number of Democrats running down the ballot, and it is worth paying attention and deciding who will be best suited to challenging Republican power in November. Now is not the time for complacency.
There are no easy solutions for making voters care about primaries again, but it can be done. Our lawmakers should place a greater emphasis on voting rights by making it simpler, allowing easier access to information, and reducing the role of money in politics. If it feels like the most powerful among us already control the outcome, people are dissuaded from voting. People need to know that their votes will make a difference and that there are more to candidates than just the letter by their name. With a new crop of legislators coming at the end of this year, there will be a chance to recharacterize our civic duty to vote.
They should take it.
