Voter Registration

Reverend Jesse Jackson, a national religious, political, and civil rights leader, recently spoke on Grounds this past Thursday about a host of issues. Charlottesville was one of Jackson's first stops on his "voter registration bus tour;" 70 people registered to vote after his speech in Old Cabell Hall. My first inclination after reading this article was to think, "Wow, that's great! 70 more people will vote in this November's gubernatorial election in Virginia." However, the decision of those 70 people may have been more emotionally-charged than rational, and not all of those 70 may actually end up voting in this November's election.

Around 5 million voters are registered in Virginia, but less than half of that number will probably turn out to vote this November to decide the next governor. Some may be discouraged by this statistic, but Johnson would say it makes total sense, that it's a rational way to behave. Your vote isn't likely to break the tie in an election, and the costs normally outweigh the benefits of voting (if you assign a dollar amount to each candidate winning). A purely "rational" person would never vote in a Virginia state election. Because the costs of voting outweigh the benefits, those who have registered are only a quarter of the way there; they still need to get off work, become informed on the issues, and take time to think about their decision. Odds are all 70 newly-registered people won't vote. Rev. Jackson's efforts to register people to vote are valiant and patriotic, but they probably won't solve the problem of low voter turnout, especially in minority demographics. For voter turnout to truly rise, the benefits of voting need to outweigh the costs.