Much has been written about the abysmal voter turn out in this fall’s California election. Everything from voter apathy to sophisticated micro-targeting has been blamed for the record-low participation rates.
But missing from much of the post-election analysis is a simple fact that has long been known to depress voter turn out – high rates of poverty are directly connected to lower rates of voter participation.
A new study from Grassroots Lab and Grizzly Bear Media draws the connection.
California is both the richest and poorest state in the union. With a GDP of more than $2 trillion, it ranks on its own as one of the world’s largest economies. But California also has more poor people and higher rates of poverty than any other state.
More than 1 in 5 of the state’s 38 million residents live in poverty, according to the latest U.S Census Bureau report .
Under a new method of calculating poverty, which takes cost of living and other factors into account, California has a poverty rate of 23.4 percent, with more than 8.9 million people below the new poverty standard.
When comparing the state’s most affluent areas with those that have among the highest rates of poverty, there is a dramatic difference in the level of voter participation.
You can red the entire study here.