Determinants of Voter Participation in Neighborhood Council Elections

Abstract

Neighborhood governance has emerged as an important arena for voluntary civic engagement, but little is known about how election participation varies across neighborhoods. We examined the election participation of 88 Los Angeles neighborhood councils (NCs) and found much of the variation can be explained by neighborhood demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Consistent with the voting participation literature, NCs with a higher percentage of Hispanic or poor residents had lower participation. Contrary to expectations, NCs with a higher percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander residents or lower educational attainment had higher participation. Interestingly, the presence of nonresidential NC stakeholders, such as business owners, workers, and nonprofit organizations, was not significantly related to participation after controlling for other factors.