10.1: Introduction

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks to supporters in Iowa the night before the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses.

Ask ten different Americans what good citizenship means, and you might get ten different answers, each representing a distinct view of civic responsibility. Yet most if not all would include voting in their answer. Unlike countries such as Australia and Brazil where voting is compulsory, America does not legally require participation in its elections. Nevertheless, voting is widely regarded as every adult American’s duty, one we’re often ashamed of not doing and which we feel free to shame others for not doing.

It’s easy to understand why voting is so important to us. Elections are the main mechanism (though not the only one) by which public opinion is incorporated into democratic policymaking. Popular sovereignty and majority rule depend on regular input from the populace. This process is undermined when voting-eligible citizens abstain from elections. The fewer people vote, the less true it is that “the people rule,” and the likelier it is that the majority which determines the outcome of the election will itself constitute only a minority of the population. A democracy with extremely low participation is little different from an aristocracy in which only a handful of citizens wield power.

Elections in the United States convert public opinion into government policy, but this conversion is neither simple nor direct. Voters choose politicians to act on their behalf, and the rules for electing those politicians vary from state to state and from office to office. These complexities make American elections much more than merely counting votes to see who or what has the most.