Minority Civic Participation

Minority communities have seen a fall in civic participation since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Many individuals have reasons why they have not participated in recent elections, and many political scientists are discovering potential institutional factors that are limiting minority participation. Demographics like age, income, and education; US citizenship; political learning; and a decline in social networks affect civic participation at the civic level and things like voting complexity, technology failures, and a need for poll worker training, voting early and reduction of polling places are institutional barriers for minorities. However, minority communities and political parties seeking their votes do have options and strategies

Individual factors that have led to a decrease in minority civic participation are a piece in understanding why minority civic participation has decreased since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. Demographics show that younger people participate less in civic life, and the minority community has a higher share of younger people than whites. People with less education participate less, and minority communities have a higher share of non-college graduate compared to whites. And finally, people with lower incomes participate less, and minority communities have a higher share of people with lower incomes. (Week 6 Lecture 1). All these factors indirectly show that minority communities are participating less

All these factors are handled by the state or a smaller organization for the state. Where individual factors are more personal and self-determining, these institutional factors are set by somebody else and are affecting the minority communities. This includes state measures that effectively make voting more complex or time-constraining. States have the power to make voting registration longer and harder and cut the registration windows so that less people end up registering and inevitably voting (Week 6 Lecture 1). As technology gets more advanced, there are attempts to incorporate it into voting procedures in order to cut costs, which is reasonable. However, most poll workers are older and are not as familiar with new technology as younger people, so polling places need to hire younger poll workers which is more difficult (Week 6 Lecture 1). States can also cut the cost of election by encouraging voting early and cutting the number of polling places and that has been implemented in the past, but recently some states are discouraging early voting and not replacing the polling places, effectively making voting harder for everyone (Week 6 Lecture 1). Since minority communities are less likely to be educated in the civic life, they would be less motivated to travel