Attitudes About Voter Registration: The Influence of Teaching

Abstract

Political socialization in primary and secondary schools typically emphasizes the importance of voting for democratic citizens. Yet, possible obstacles to participation are seldom discussed. In college, students frequently discover that turnout in the United States is lower than in most other democracies, and they may learn that voter registration helps account for this difference. This research addresses how experiences in the college classroom affect students’ attitudes about voter registration by employing a quasi-experimental, pre-post survey design. The experimental stimulus was a course assignment in which students completed voter registration forms under four scenarios designed to simulate different circumstances frequently encountered by college students. The students in the experimental group became much less sanguine about the ease of registration and the ability of most citizens to correctly navigate the process, yet became more confident in the voter registration process in general. This raises interesting questions about how attitudes about the political process are shaped by students’ classroom experiences.