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Residential Mobility and Voter Turnout

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Peverill Squire ,
Raymond E. Wolfinger  and
David P. Glass
Peverill Squire
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
Raymond E. Wolfinger
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
David P. Glass
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

We examine the characteristics of a largely ignored low-turnout group—people who have recently moved. We find that neither demographic nor attitudinal attributes explain their lower turnout. Instead, the requirement that citizens must register anew after each change in residence constitutes the key stumbling block in the trip to the polls. Since nearly one-third of the nation moves every two years, moving has a large impact on national turnout rates. We offer a proposal to reduce the effect of residential mobility on turnout and estimate that turnout would increase by nine percentage points if the impact of moving could be removed. The partisan consequences of such a change would be marginal.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 45 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

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