While just about everyone agrees that voting is a beneficial act for communities, the benefits apparently stop there. Giving money to political candidates and volunteering for campaigns drew much stiffer resistance.
The disillusion is centered on political activities specifically, as volunteering with civic groups, donating to charity, and attending community meetings all posted high numbers in regard to how beneficial they were for a community.
Poll director Dan Schnur remarked that this discontent may have something to do with an anger and dismissal of national politics that has begun to “ooze downward.”
CityNews Publisher Mike Madrid consulted on the poll and echoed these sentiments, saying “people just say it doesn't matter if you're a local mayor or a U.S. senator — a pox on all their houses. There's just an increasingly pervasive sense at the local level that it just doesn't matter."
One additional point the poll noted was the schism between those saying voting is important, 93% of respondents, and those who show up to the polls, which is definitely not 93% of the population.
Further reading on the USC poll can be found here.