Voter Participation

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I was a poll watcher in a minority area of town. This paper will look at a series of questions: What did I expect to encounter while poll watching? What have I learned about voter participation? Were there any problems? When addressing the problems that arose during the poll watching we look at Munro vs. Socialist Workers Party heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1986.
My first day of poll watching was also the first day the early voting was open. I expected the voter turn out would be low. I was scheduled for the 7am to 11am poll watching shift. I thought that I would see at most five people the entire four hour shift. I was wrong. There were more than one hundred early voters that voted during my shift. I could not believe the turn out! Giles, the judge on duty, said the turn out was greater than any other year he could remember. Perhaps this was caused by the sense of urgency this election had compared to past elections.
My second prediction about voters was that there would be more middle-aged voters than elderly. The actual turn out was counter intuitive. Approximately 75% of the voters were (looked) 65 and older. I thought that younger people (middle aged) would feel that they have a greater stake in the election and thus have a higher turnout. There are several explanations for why most of the voters I saw during my 8 hours of poll watching were elderly. It could be the case that elderly voters feel they have a greater stake. It is possible that what is “at stake” is not why people vote. It could also be the case that middle aged voters had to go to work, while the elderly voters do not, in general, work. Also, it could be the case the elderly voters are early risers and the middle aged voters will vote later in the day. Another probable explanation maybe that the area of town this polling site was in was primarily elderly residences. There are many explanations for the voter turn out. I learned...