The Quest for the Elusive Non-Voter

All politics is local, the saying goes. Decisions made at the local level have the most immediate and personal effect. Yet we struggle with the same challenge faced at the state and national levels: the quest to identify and define the elusive eligible voter who doesn’t vote.

With the Municipal Election looming on November 8, this topic is again causing much debate within the Get Out The Vote community. Why do so many voters not turn out to make their opinion known? I will use the two budget referendums from May 2011 to illustrate the point.

First, a breakdown by age group of Brookfield’s eligible voters:

• Age 18-24 comprise 8.01 percent of eligible voters
• Age 25-29 comprise 7.42 percent of eligible voters
• Age 30-54 comprise 52.86 percent of eligible voters
• Age 55-64 comprise 15.05 percent of eligible voters
• Age 65+ comprise 16.67 percent of eligible voters

Refer to the attached graph showing the percent of each group’s participation in the two referendums.

Total voter participation for referendum one was 36.48 percent and for referendum two was 43.45 percent.

Notice that with the exception of those aged 65+ in the second referendum, none of the other groups reached 50 percent. That means the decision about the budget was made by less than half of those eligible to vote. This begs the question of whether the results are truly representative of the majority of residents?

So if these decisions have such a personal impact on town residents, why don’t more of them vote? Everyone has an opinion. Maybe residents are too busy to get to the polls. Maybe they are out of town or maybe they forgot. Maybe people don’t feel they have enough information to make an informed choice. Maybe people just feel that their vote isn’t important. Or maybe it is something else entirely.

Since speculation gets us nowhere, I would like to put the question to anyone who wants to answer. What could be done differently that would make you more enthusiastic about voting? What would make you more likely to get out to the polls? Our country operates on the belief that the fairest decisions are those that reflect the will of the majority. How do we get the majority to speak?

In case any of the speculative reasons are on target, I’d like to offer a few suggestions. For those with hectic schedules, the polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. There is never a line first thing in the morning, so maybe voting on your way to work would keep it quick and painless. The other alternative is to stop on your way home from work so that you do not need to make a separate trip. Personally, it has never taken me more than 10 minutes to vote, even during national elections.

If you will be away from Brookfield during polling hours on November 8, absentee ballots are easy to obtain. The application is available online and can be completed in advance, using this link.

You can either take it personally to the Town Clerk to exchange for a ballot or accomplish the same by mail.

If you are in town on November 8, there will be “Vote Today” signs posted all over Brookfield. The schools will be closed that day and there will certainly be reminders in all the forms of media, from newspapers to Facebook.

For those looking for information about the candidates, there are two more events over the next two weeks that will provide an opportunity to see and hear from them. Wednesday, October 26, is a First Selectman/Selectman debate at Whisconier Middle School (WMS) at 7 p.m. and on Wednesday, November 2, there is a Meet the Candidates Open House at the Brookfield Library at 7 p.m. All candidates running for positions on November 8 are invited to attend. The League of Women Voters also has compiled a Voter’s Guide listing all of the candidates, which will be available online and in local newspapers this week. 

If you think that your vote is not important, look once more at the results of the two budget referendums in May. On the first referendum, the Town portion passed by 106 votes and the Education portion failed by nine votes. On the second referendum, the Town portion passed by 578 votes and the Education portion passed by 107 votes. Clearly, every vote counts. The question is what will it take for everyone to want to get out and vote?