While residents of greater Seattle demonstrate high participation in non–electoral politics, this activity doesn't translate into correspondingly higher voting. In 2008, greater Seattle's voting registration was at the national average, and actual turnout was only slightly higher than the U.S. as a whole. In addition, our region's voter turnout declined by 3% compared to turnout for the 2004 presidential election. (Figure 9)

Analysis of statewide voter registration and voter turnout in the 2008 election shows wide racial disparities. Eligible white non–Hispanics registered (74.8%) and voted (70.6%) at the highest rate. A much lower percentage of Asians registered (63.6%) and voted (50.5%). Among Hispanics, 57.0% registered and 52.7% voted. Washington's African American population has the lowest registration rate (46.4%) but due to the historic nature of the 2008 election, nearly all those registered voted. 1

It is important to explore why registered voters didn't actually vote in recent elections. Nationally, 2.8% of registered voters said they forgot to vote or send in an absentee ballot, but in Washington, 10.5% said they forgot. That might be explained by our state's 2008 transition to an all–mail balloting system. 2 While that change holds long–term promise of increasing voter turnout—a 2008 study of Oregon's vote–by–mail system demonstrates a signicant positive effect from voting by mail of around 10% of registered voters in both mid–term and presidential elections 3 —it may have exacerbated problems with voter turnout short–term. It will be important to track this statistic as people become more familiar with the process. New immigrant voters have reported not knowing what a ballot looks like and throwing it away when it arrives. As some immigrant voters have also revealed that they did not know to ll in the circles on the ballots, their votes may not have been counted.

Additionally, 12.5% of Washingtonians reported registration problems, almost double the national level of 6.4%. Drilling deeper into these results, we learn that, nationally, more recent registrants experienced greater problems than those with longer voting records:11.5% of those registered less than one year reported problems, more than twice the level of those registered one–to–two years and ten times the level of voters registered more than three years.

An August 2010 letter to the editor in The Seattle Times issued a complaint that we don't do enough targeted outreach to young voters, a signicant subset of new registrants who, nationally, experienced twice as many registration problems as older generations. “It's a bit like throwing a party, not inviting someone … and then wondering why they didn't show up,” the letter charged. 4 Similarly, most political parties, campaigns, and candidates simply do not know how to reach out to foreign–born voters. They don't invest resources to engage these citizens, preferring to focus exclusively on those voters they are certain will turn out. This is a great disservice to the growing immigrant population and to our region. It is essential that we begin to devote resources to finding, implementing, and evaluating the best and most effective ways to reach new immigrant voters and other less–frequent voters.

While addressing registration problems and other barriers experienced by our state's youngest and most recently registered voters is essential, we should also take positive steps to encourage their engagement. Just as this year's aggressive multimedia marketing campaign for the ten–year U.S. census resulted in signicantly greater participation, our Secretary of State might launch a marketing campaign (with special emphasis on new registrants) to remind Washington voters of balloting timelines and procedures and urge them to register and vote. Materials should use messages that resonate with hard–to–reach communities in appropriate languages and should be implemented by trusted organizations within the communities.

That requires sensitivity to patterns of how and where new voters register (Figure 10) and appropriate communication methods to reach specic demographics. For example, since we know that residents of greater Seattle generally, and younger adults specically, favor social media for connection and political expression, why not launch a public Facebook or Twitter “get out the vote” campaign before and on election day? Traditional techniques like word of mouth are important for those without access to technology or who come from oral societies. Creating a welcoming environment that invites and motivates participation and addresses fears and concerns around corruption that immigrants may have from experiences in their home country are critical. We must work to engage each segment that is missing from the civic vitality of the region. Using a one–size–ts–all approach will not improve current disparities in voting and registration.

We might also replace the act of going to a neighborhood polling place—both a reminder to vote and a beloved civic ritual—with new opportunities to build community and celebrate our shared democracy. Neighborhood gatherings and ethnic community parties to watch election results or meet and congratulate newly elected ofcials are examples of new rituals we should encourage.

As is the case with almost every civic health metric, voting is more likely among citizens who participate in other civic ways. People who are informed and discuss politics are twice as likely to vote as those who don't. The same goes for people who participate in groups compared to those who don't. People with a high personal connection to neighbors vote nearly twice as much as those without close neighborhood ties. We can take advantage of these synergies to promote voter registration and turnout at places and times where neighbors, groups and organizations gather for service and celebration.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Create new civic rituals that celebrate the communal act of choosing leaders and approving policy.

2. Address barriers to voter registration, including language and transportation.

3. Invest in voter registration and get–out–the vote strategies that specically target populations with low participation rates using methods appropriate to those communities, for example, language–specic phone banks, mailings, and ethnic media ads.

4. Use diverse communication means and marketing techniques, appropriate to our diverse community, to remind voters about the opportunity and procedure to vote.

5. Conduct voter registration at cultural festivals, libraries and community centers, social service and volunteer sites, schools and other community gathering places and events.

6. Invest in civics education for all youth and adults.

7. Welcome the activities of neighborhood–based political organizations that can stimulate voter registration and turnout at the grassroots level.