Counting on the Rural Vote

With the upcoming presidential and congressional elections, the year 2000 is an important year politically, due to the potential for change in all three branches of the federal government. The results of these elections will determine the direction of laws and policies for years to come.

According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, despite a nearly eight million increase in the number of Americans eligible to vote and a 4 million increase in those registered, fewer Americans cast their ballots in the 1998 mid-term election than in 1994, plunging voter turnout to its lowest level since 1942. The 1998 mid-term election was the fourth national election in the last seven in which the actual number of votes cast dropped despite population increases.

Source: Alliance for Better Campaigns

According to Rhodes Cook in his article “America’s Heartland: Neither One Mind or One Heart,” in the September 1997 issue of Congressional Quarterly, rural America as a whole has demonstrated itself to be more politically conservative than the rest of the nation, especially on issues such as gun control and abortion.

In the Congress at the time of his writing, nearly two-thirds of the rural districts were represented by Republicans. The political attitudes of rural voters, however, are not staunchly conservative, according to Cook, as a clear majority of rural voters supported Clinton in 1996.

While rural voters tend to be fiscally conservative and positioned to the right of the mainstream on social issues, many rural voters are concerned about jobs and poverty in their communities and tend to support government aid in the form of development programs.

Regional Differences
In 1998, only 57 congressional districts were considered “rural” using the Congressional Quarterly’s definition of rural districts:-those which have more than 60 percent of their population living outside a metropolitan area. Rural districts account for only 13 percent of the total congressional districts. The South and Midwest regions of the country have the most rural congressional districts, with 21 districts each, and have been more successful in getting the issues of their rural regions addressed by Congress. The Eastern region of the country has eight rural congressional districts, and the West has seven.

According to the Congressional Quarterly (1997), the actual number of districts which are considered "rural" (60 percent of the population outside a metropolitan area) has diminished from 42 percent in 1966 to 18 percent in 1993. However, the variability of the voting patterns in rural America makes it an attractive area for campaigning, unlike urban areas, which tend to vote consistently democratic (Cook 1997).

Rural Congressional Voting Districts, 1997

A study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 analyzed voting trends in presidential elections from 1828 to 1992 for all counties and most large cities. Their results confirm that turnout rates have declined since 1960. Nationwide, turnout in presidential elections declined to 51 percent in 1988, a 20 percent drop from 1960.

"Almost all of the deterioration in turnout rates since 1960 occurred in major metropolitan areas or after 18-year-olds were given the vote in 1970," says Peter Nardulli, one of the researchers and the head of the political science department at the University of Illinois.

Throughout most of American political history, small metropolitan and rural areas have tended to have higher voter turnout rates than metropolitan areas. Only time will tell what will happen in the upcoming elections. However, small town and rural Americans need to exercise their right to vote.

For more information, contact:

• RUPRI at (573) 882-0316 or visit them on the web at www.rupri.org;
• Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at www.gspm.org/csae;
• Federal Election Commission at (800) 424-9530 or at www.fec.gov;
• Alliance for Better Campaigns at (202) 879-6755 or at www.bettercampaigns.org;
• Center for Voting and Democracy at (301) 270-4616 or at www.fairvote.org;
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at www.uiuc.edu.

By Melissa Levy, Digest Managing Editor

October Index | Next Page