Empowering Citizens
Why Don’t They Vote?- Palacio Magazine and CSULB want to know
PalacioMagazine.com has partenered with students in the Political Sciences class of Professor Som Chounlamountry to survey Long Beach residents about their voting intentions this primary season. The Long Beach Vote 2016 Project wants to find out if they intend to vote and why? And if they don’t intend to vote, why not?
The survey form which was developed in collaboration with CSULB Political Science students, Hillary Black and Samantha Leong, asks 18 questions. They range from simple demographic information about age and ethnicity to a list of reasons for why they vote and why they don’t vote.
In the latter set of questions, respondents are given a number of options including:
I don’t think my vote counts
I am too busy to vote
I do not know about the candidates and/or the issues
I do not like the candidates
I do not know when the elections occur
Other
If other, we ask them to briefly explain. Just as importantly, we want to know what might change the non-voter’s mind:
Knowing that my vote counts
Voting was easier
Knew more about the candidates and the issues
And we give them the option to list additional reasons.
One of the additionally interesting questions revolve around where voters currently get their candidate information. The list of options includes local print newspapers, online, Voter Guides and whether they discuss the candidates and issues with their neighbors and friends. One of the last questions asks whether a voter would support a holiday dedicated to voting. Respondents are also given an opportunity to list one suggestion for making voting easier.
The survey is but one element of an effort to study how and why voters cast ballots. In addition to this first survey which will end on April 11, day before the Primary. A second survey jumping off on Primary Day will measure why voters took their civic responsibility seriously and cast a ballot. The CSULB students will follow-up with those potential voters who did not cast a vote.
The Long Beach Vote 2016 Project plans to collect all the data generated by the surveys by mid-May. The resulting narrative will be presented to the Long Beach City Clerk and posted online at PalacioMagazine.com.
In addition to CSULB students Hillary Black and Samantha Leong, other students scheduled to work on the project include Serawit Embaye-Yenie, Erendira Moctezuma, Michael Millan, Ryan Webster, Jacquelin Carbajal, Alejandro Leyva, Sabrina Marquez and Kelvin Le.
You can take this first survey HERE
