Medical News Today, September 2020
Earlier this year, the Knight Foundation — who are a U.S.-based nonprofit — publicized the data they collected through The 100 Million Project. This is a large survey that aims to get to the root of why so many U.S. individuals choose not to vote.
The Knight Foundation note that in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, around 43% of eligible voters did not cast their ballots.
To find out why this was, The 100 Million Project surveyed “12,000 chronic nonvoters nationally and in 10 swing states,” as well as “a group of 1,000 active voters who consistently participate in national elections and a group of 1,000 young eligible voters (18–24 years old).”
Based on the respondents’ answers, the Knight Foundation observed some common themes among many nonvoters. For example, they tended to lack conviction that their votes would count and feel under-informed about current social issues.
In this Special Feature, we delve deeper into the psychology around voting and not voting to find out more about the driving factors behind civic engagement.
