Poor Americans are less likely to vote and more likely to distrust government, study shows

[jakeXT]

Income inequality was last year’s big economic discussion. Will political inequality be the focus this year?

Those who have fervently held political beliefs tend to have a common bond: they have enough money to do so.

Being politically engaged is a perk of class -- namely, the working class, middle class, and rich.

The numbers tell the story: The financially secure are more likely to register and more likely to vote. 94% of those who are most financially secure were also registered to vote. They were also three times more likely to vote than their poorer counterparts, found Pew Research Center.

Just 54% of poor Americans, or those who struggle to make ends meet, were registered to vote in the 2014 election.

That’s bad news for the Democratic party. According to the survey, many of those who were financially insecure Americans leaned Democratic - 42% to 17% - and most of them were unlikely to vote. Just one in five financial insecure Americans were among likely voters.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2015/jan/09/poor-americans-are-less-likely-to-vote-and-more-likely-to-distrust-government-study-shows

[SunSeeker]

1. It costs money to vote. We really do still have a stealth poll tax.

It is often prohibitively expensive for a poor person to take time off, pay for public transportation, figure out what to do with one's children, wait in line to vote, then take public transportation back to work, and hope you didn't get fired for being late for work.

All voters should automatically get mail-in ballots with postage paid return envelopes. If you want to vote at the polls, that should be option, but not the default option.

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. +1 ...

If not mail-in ballots, the access to the should include expanded hours (to include after hours and at least one weekend) and open to beyond a single designated polling place and, maybe, include a novelty feature, such as a lottery prize selected from those voting.

While we will never find anything approaching 100% participation, we can establish a protocol that is more user friendly.

[RBInMaine]

7. With all respect, why do they then have time to wait in line for cheap tv's on Black Friday?

Most states have early voting, some have absentee voting for all and other means of easier voting.

I don't buy the excuses. GET OFF THY ASS AND VOTE.

[SunSeeker]

8. Accusing all poor people of not "getting off their ass" is hardly said "with all respect."

Why do we have our elections on a Tuesday, which is a work day and a school day?

Why isn't election day a state and national holiday....like say, Black Friday?

[onecaliberal]

2. Which is why they are so consistently ripped off

And screwed over. They really are voting republican when they fail to vote.

[Joe Magarac]

3. Exactly what one would expect ...

... but saying something about it is a good thing.

[hadrons]

4. Many gov't programs for the less off....

are set-up to be discouraging; some of it is to save money for those agencies (they kick-the-can to the next one) or that the people running them care more about their jobs than who they're suppose to help (my brother was apart of a program that's largely funded by the state and he hates it - they create a lot of busy work to justify their existence and their jobs and not the clients they're suppose to serve - to the point where what they do is a determent to them.)

[craigmatic]

5. Ignorance and poverty are the greatest enemy of man. Education is the solution to both. nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. And really, I can't say that I really blame them

Our "leaders" are constantly stepping all over them by making it harder to vote, making them pee in cups to get increasingly meager public assistance benefits (how humiliating is that?), accusing them of crass politicization of issues/concerns when they do start mobilizing and making their needs or concerns heard (while teabaggers are rewarded for their "activism&quot and making their lives overall more miserable. However, ultimately, we are going to have to figure out a way to help get them involved and keep them involved in the political system and get rid of the leaders whom want to keep them down (and push them down further) and replace them with leaders whom want to offer them a hand up.

[hollowdweller]

12. Look at the recent cromnibus. How much was for Wall Street and Business and how much for them??

If we get to the point that stuff is being stuffed in to help students, people with big medical debt, people with kids who both work rather than deregulation and giveaways to the business community and Wall Street that attitude will change.

[lame54]

13. republicans create the poor then recruit them