Satellite Fight
The discussion is heating up once again in Marion County over the issue of satellite voting. Democrats say it increases voter participation. Republicans say it’s too expensive. Underneath it all is the question of who benefits the most, especially with the upcoming Mayor’s and City-Council races. We can have the honest debate about politics, although that’s hard to do at times when people are quick to yell racism. However despite the best wishes of satellite voting proponents, the evidence doesn’t prove that it increases voter turnout. If anything, I argue you just rearrange the deck chairs and individuals who would have voted anyway just do it earlier. Here’s a synopsis of the voter turnout taken from the Marion County Clerk’s website.
- 2011 Primary – 12.4 %
- 2010 General – 36.6 %
- 2010 Primary – 15.1 %
- 2009 Special – 11.4 %.
- 2008 General – 54.7 %.
- 2008 Primary – 36.6 %.
- 2007 General – 26.3 %.
- 2007 Primary – 6.5 %.
- 2006 General – 33.19 %.
- 2006 Primary – 13.67 %.
- 2004 General – 53.6 %
- 2004 Primary – 18.73 %.
- 2003 General – 26.8 %
- 2003 Primary – 9.9 %.
As you can see voter turnout tends to be pretty consistent, regardless. In fact looking at the 2004 and 2008 general elections, although there was a 15 percent increase in the number of registered voters (602,918 in 2004; 697,559 in 2008) there was only a 1.1 percent increase in total voter turnout and 2008 had satellite voting and Barack Obama on the ticket. And in the 2010 general election we had pseudo-satellite voting as the Clerk used off-site offices for voting. Compared to the 2006 general election, there was slightly more than a 3 percent increase in voter turnout.
Satellite voting may make it easier for people to vote, but there’s no evidence that it increases participation. It does drive up costs because you have more facilities to rent or lease for voting. So if you end up paying more, but don’t get more voter participation, it makes wonder what’s the point? Unless you want to use it as a political issue to insinuate racism exists where there is none? But we all know that would never happen.
