By Ryan Falk
Murphy News Service
New figures from the Minnesota Secretary of State show the state’s voter turnout for the 2014 election was much lower than previous elections.
Turnout was 50.51 percent of the state’s eligible voters, down from a 76.42 percent for the 2012 election.
Two years after every presidential election Americans get the opportunity to vote for their representatives on the national and state level, but they don’t seem to be turning out for midterm elections.
“Voters are just not motivated as much when there is not a presidential election,” Political Science Professor Howard Lavine said.
The nation’s voter turnout, the percentage of registered voters who vote in any given election, was a little over 58 percent in 2012, but this year it was a little over 36 percent which is the lowest voter turnout since 1942.
The numbers are more shocking when Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that it was the smoothest run election in his eight years on the job.
Lavine said there are major differences between presidential and midterm elections for voters.
“There is more social pressure to turnout for a presidential election,” Lavine said. “Voting for the presidential level is seen as a duty, not the same for the midterm elections.”
Ritchie pointed to one major reason for the lack of voter turnout.
“Presidential elections come with massive spending on advertisements and more media coverage,” Ritchie said. “Bombardment from paid and non unpaid media is important.”
This Lavine said comes from a lack of competition in midterm elections.
“When the race is not competitive there are no ads,” Lavine said. “Low levels of ads makes the race invisible to people.”
Minnesota’s voter turnout tends to be higher than the rest of the country and Minnesota led the way with a little over 76 percent turnout in 2012. In the 2014 midterm election voter turnout was around 50 percent.
Ritchie said this comes from Minnesota’s stance of voting.
“We have laws designed to help voters vote,” Ritchie said. “Minnesota takes the position that we want everyone to vote.”
Ritchie said that election day registration and sense of civic duty also contribute to Minnesota’s higher than average turnout.
“We have a general sense of community and civic engagement. Being engaged in elections is something people here see as important,” he said.
Lavine said voter turnout is on the way up and more can be done to help that along.
“Voting is down, but it’s coming back,” Lavine said. “I’ve done studies suggesting that if you frame voting in a position that’s consistent with a person’s personality makeup you can increase the likelihood they will turnout.”
Ritchie said that there are many things that are done to try and increase the voter turnout, but there is only so much that can be done.
“The office of the Secretary has a small staff and budget to use to inform people,” Ritchie said. “Our job is making sure citizens are aware of the tools available to them.”
Ryan Falk is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota