{"id":72578,"date":"2018-11-05T11:22:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=72578"},"modified":"2018-11-05T11:23:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T16:23:00","slug":"midterm-voting-a-research-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2018\/11\/05\/midterm-voting-a-research-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"Midterm Voting: A Research Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read more at There’s Research on That (here<\/a> and here<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

The U.S. midterm elections are upon us this week, and everyone is trying to get out the vote. This is important, since voter turnout in this country is relatively low<\/a>, but we also have to remember that there\u00a0are institutional reasons why turnout is low in some areas that have nothing to do with voters’ motivation. Commentators often talk about gerrymandering and voter suppression policies, but what do these look like in practice, and what kind of impact do they have? Social science research can show us.<\/p>\n

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Gerrymandering<\/a>\u00a0occurs when legislators redraw voting districts in order to concentrate their electoral dominance.\u00a0Political sociologists have shown that full voting rights are not as guaranteed in the United States as in many other major democracies, especially for low-income voters and communities of color in the electoral process. For example, partisan gerrymandering reduced access to communication between ward residents, local nonprofits, and their political representatives in Chicago. There is also evidence it changed voters\u2019 choices in Georgia.<\/p>\n