ABSTRACT
The legitimacy of a democracy depends on active participation by the governed – the voters. Yet, despite widespread acceptance of the idea that voting is a civic duty and normatively desirable, most eligible Americans are not regular voters. Low voter turnout, particularly when active voters are not representative of the broader population, calls into question the degree to which elected officials and public policy represent public needs and preferences. Thus, voter turnout is of interest for both the maintenance of American democracy and also to ensure political equality. These concerns underlie the longstanding
interest in participation and turnout by political scientists, including the recent surge of interest in conducting randomized field experiments to test ways of increasing participation among nonvoters.
