You Can Take These Voters to Water, but You Can’t Make Them Drink

Graphic credit: Virginia Public Access Project

The Virginia Public Access Project refuses to link to Bacon’s Rebellion news articles, but, hey, (gnashing of teeth) no hard feelings…. The nonprofit group produces some interesting data visualizations, including the graphic above, that are worth pondering.

Virginia has 5.2 million registered voters. Now, I know that many registered voters don’t always vote. But I’m surprised at how few registered voters cast ballots in every election. From the looks of the VPAP graphic, only one in four have voted in each of the last three elections.

Not that I’d thought about voter turnout terribly deeply, but I vote every single election — can’t think of one that I missed in 45+ years — and I just assumed that most registered voters usually went to the polls. But that’s obviously not the case. Getting people to register is only half the battle. Getting them off their duffs and into the voting booth is every bit as important. This challenge is no secret to anyone who’s ever worked on a political campaign, but the VPAP graphic drives it home for the rest of us.