Voter engagement in 2012. Via D.C. Kids for Action.
Today, a man who lives in D.C. voted in Chicago.
Of course, Barack Obama is not an average D.C. resident; U.S. presidents behave like college students who attend school in the city.
But like Politico’s Byron Tau, it bothers DCist greatly when people who aren’t the president and reside full-time in the city do not vote here. It leads to a lack of engagement in local politics, which leads, in part, to extremely embarrassing turnout. Just 99,394 of 369,037 registered voters turned out for the April primary. Compare that to the 2012 general election, when 294,814 of 483,775 voters came out, many of them for the aforementioned Chicago voter who lives in D.C.
This also bothers HyeSook Chung, executive director of D.C. Action for Children, which collects and analyzes data about the city’s kids.
“In 2012, we had higher turnout compared to the nation. D.C. is one of the few jurisdictions that had higher turnout in 2012 than 2008,” Chung wrote in a blogpost today. “D.C. residents turned out the vote for the general election though we don’t have representation in Congress. However, when it comes to voting for our local leaders—we don’t show the same engagement.”
D.C. Action for Children added data about the 2012 election to its map tool, showing which areas of the city were most engaged two years ago. The map also displays the level of child poverty in each area. Compare that to a map showing turnout in the April 2014 primary from the Washington Post.
Washington Post. Voter turnout April 2014.
