Why Aren't North Carolinians Voting? 1954

“Our Poor Voting Record” from the Editorial Page of the Daily Independent, Kannapolis, May 24, 1954.

North Carolinians, as the painful facts support, do not attach much value to their right and privilege of the free ballot in the exercise of choosing their elected representatives to government.

A statistical study completed recently by the North Carolina Research Institute shows that in 1952 only 52.53 percent of Tar Heels 21 years of age and older bothered to vote in the presidential election. And that 52.53 percent figure represents the biggest vote ever recorded in North Carolina. Among the 48 states, North Carolina ranked a shocking 39^th.

Cabarrus and Rowan counties, while showing a higher percentage than the state as a whole, have little to brag about in the voting field. Less than 64 percent of the age-eligibles in the two counties troubled themselves to go to the polls in 1952 to express their preference for President of the United States.

Next Saturday the state’s predominantly political party—the Democratic party—conducts its biennial primary. There are three important state offices at contest, and a variety of important county nominations at state. Consensus of expert opinion agrees that no more than 40 percent of the state’s registered Democrats will trouble themselves to vote. About the same ratio is expected in Cabarrus and Rowan.

Why this indifference to a privilege for which men have fought and given their lives throughout the time of recorded history? Why this surrender of Democracy’s prime weapon in the ever-continuing battle against tyranny?

We must confess we don’t know. Experienced politicians say that a light vote indicates general approval of policies and personalities at the helm of government. They thus imply that those not voting are, in effect, casting a silent vote of approval or endorsement for the way their government is functioning.

Sociologists who have delved into the mass political mind have another theory. The non-voters, so say the sociologists, are convinced that no matter how they vote, affairs of government will not change much one way or the other. Theirs, one concludes, is a “so what?” attitude.

Short of legislation making it mandatory to vote—a suggestion we reject as contrary to the very principle the franchise is supposed to uphold—we believe the only real solution lies in our schools. There, we would suggest, the citizen’s training for the responsibilities of government should begin. Greater stress should be made on courses pertinent to the science of government. A youngster who is impressed with the whys and wherefores of government will be a responsible, self-thinking adult voter.

-=-

Facts from the study cited in the editorial:

Utah had the highest percentage of voters in 1952. Nine states had a smaller percentage of voters than North Carolina, and they were all Southern states—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Wide variations exist among the 100 counties of the state. Transylvania had the best record of any county. A total of 92.5 percent voted. At the other extreme was Onslow, where only 26.36 percent voted.