| Send for the smelling salts -- someone is feeling faint! |
A decade and a half later, the reform crossed the Atlantic. Louisville, Kentucky, enacted a so-called Australian ballot in 1888, and 32 states did the same by 1892--over the objections of machine politicians. By the turn of the century, most of the country had changed the public spectacle of Election Day into a solemn occasion for curtained isolation. This shift coincided with a dramatic drop in turnout rates, from nearly 80 percent of the eligible population in 1896--which had been typical for the era--to 65 percent eight years later.
As modern civic activists have tried to increase turnout, their focus has been on reducing the hassle of participation. The most-successful reforms of the past decade, however--early in-person voting, "no excuse" absentee ballots, elections entirely by mail--appear not to have lured new people to the polls so much as merely made it more convenient for regular voters to cast their ballots.
What actually works is mimicking some part of the 19th century's surveillance culture. The most effective tool for turning nonvoters into voters--10 times better than the typical piece of preelection mail, according to a 2006 Michigan experiment--is a threat to send neighbors evidence of one's apathy. Other experiments have found gentler approaches that serve a similar function: merely reminding citizens that whether they cast a ballot is a matter of public record, or promising to print the names of those who do in a postelection newspaper ad, can boost turnout too.
| Law professor Ann Althouse blogged about receiving such a letter early this month. |