Voting is the bedrock upon which democracy rests. Through the vote citizens convey information about their needs and preferences, they make important decisions about whom to elect, and they hold leaders accountable for their actions by either voting or not voting to return them to office. Democracy is unworkable and unthinkable without the vote (Hamilton, Madison, and Jay 1961, Lijphart 1997, Piven and Cloward 1988, Verba et al. 1995).

Despite the centrality of the vote for democracy, we know that large numbers of citizens stay away from the polls. In America, voter participation at every level of government is low and at every level except presidential elections is getting lower. Often the majority of citizens do not vote when given the opportunity. At best, slightly over half of all eligible voters vote in national contests. The numbers are even worse for statewide primaries where turnout can hover around one-third of eligible voters. But nowhere is the problem worse than at the local level. Turnout in municipal elections around the country averages half that of national elections (Morlan 1984), and local voter turnout often falls below one-quarter of the voting-age population (Bridges 1997, Hampton and Tate 1996). Moreover, trends over time suggest that voter turnout in local elections is declining (Karnig and Walter 1993, Verba et al. 1995).

What is most striking about nonvoting is that it does not occur evenly across the population. Those who do turn out to vote look very different from those who do not.