[NYTr] Millions of Women Still Fail to Cast Ballots

Wed Aug 8 18:04:49 EDT 2007

Womens eNews - Aug 7, 2007
http://www.womensenews.org

Millions of Women Still Fail to Cast Ballots

By Jacqueline Lee - WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--In "Election Day," a documentary about the experiences
of voters in the 2004 election, an Ohio woman is shown having trouble
casting her ballot. She had moved, and despite re-registering, went to
three different poll locations because her name didn't appear on the
books.

"The woman in Shaker Heights is carrying her small child in the morning
and she had been getting the runaround and go-around, going from one
polling place to the next," said Maggie Bowman, producer of "Election
Day," released in March. "A lot of the challenges faced by working
people in general are more extreme for working women."

On Aug. 26 U.S. women mark the 87th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
giving them the right to vote. By some measures there is plenty to
celebrate.

Women have turned out to vote at a higher rate than men since the 1980s.

In the 2006 midterm election 2 million more young women voted than in
the previous comparable cycle, according to the Center for Information
and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of
Maryland School of Public Policy, which credits the rise in part to the
Feminist Majority Foundation's "Get Out Her Vote" effort aimed at
college women.

Moreover,55 percent of female voters cast their ballots for Democrats
in House races, while only 50 percent of male voters did. In fact,
female voters were responsible for key Democratic victories in the
House and the Senate.

However, those figures do not reflect the fact that many women's votes
are missing from the count.

In the last presidential election, 8 million women registered but did
not vote; another 36 million potential female voters were not
registered at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Faith Winter, national field director of the New York-based White House
Project, a nonpartisan group working to elect a female president, says
the paucity of elected women is discouraging.

"When they don't see themselves or people that look like them in the
process, it's a big barrier for participation. Not seeing yourself in
power is something that's particular to women."

Unmarried Women Fastest Growing Group

Unmarried women are the fastest growing major demographic group and
represent the largest potential group of new voters, according to "The
State of Unmarried America," an annual report released on June 29 by
Washington-based Women's Voices Women Vote.

But many of their votes aren't there to be counted. Of the 49.5 million
single, separated, divorced or widowed women in the United States, 18
million are unregistered and 5 million are registered but don't vote.

"What would make them most likely to participate is if they have more
information from sources that they trust: nonbiased, nonpartisan
information," said Joe Goode, executive director of Women's Voices
Women Vote. "They don't have the same social network or are not as
politically engaged as married couples. The second major thing holding
them back is cynicism towards politicians and politics."

Goode says the women sitting out elections are hindered in general by a
high degree of instability; 40 percent of young women move every three
to four years and need to re-register.

Other women may be hindered more by everyday difficulties.

"Women are voting and women are voting in high numbers every year,"
said Kassidy Johnson, a campus organizer for the Feminist Majority
Foundation in Arlington, Va., which has a variety of programs to
increase female voting. "I really believe the things that hold us back
are normal, everyday things. You forget, you can't find a babysitter or
you don't want to stand in line all day."

Registration Challenges

Johnson points to recently married women who may not know they have to
re-register if they change their names. "A woman's name does not change
automatically and it costs money to change your name. You have to
change your Social Security card, your voter registration card, then
the roster or your license may be wrong and your name doesn't match up."

Frances Talbott-White, vice president of voter services for the League
of Women Voters of Los Angeles, notes that among older people there are
more frail women living in assisted living facilities or in hospitals.

"An abuse that can happen is that somebody can go to their nursing home
and say, 'Let me help you with your absentee ballot,' and fill it in
the way they think it ought to be filled in," Talbott-White said.

The National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum in Washington, D.C.,
has reported that Asian female voters face obstacles unique to their
culture, as do many immigrant populations.

"For older women, a lot of it just comes from the cultural barrier, not
really a stigma around voting," Priscilla Huang, the group's policy and
program director, said. "Voting isn't really a part of what they did in
their communities or their home countries, so it's not an ingrained
process. . . Women tend to rely on more English proficient family
members to translate the news or tell them what is going on
politically. I could imagine how this might sway or influence how they
vote on things."

Asian American Women Turnout Rising

However, among those Asian American women who were registered, 84
percent voted in the 2004 election and voted at a rate higher than men
for the first time, according to the Center for American Women and
Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

"In the last 2006 election, two-thirds of all first-time voters were
foreign born," said Huang. "Immigrant women take voting very seriously,
and they are excited to do so. So it's problematic when all the tools
are not available to them."

Huang said political causes and campaigns often fail to target this
group, which means they often don't feel confident enough to vote and
are further marginalized.

"A good example of this is around some of the pro-choice initiatives
among mainstream pro-choice groups," Huang said. "When they go out and
campaign, women of color and Asian Pacific Island women in particular
get left out because they may think if you're Asian, you're not
pro-choice. There are no Asian voters because there's no outreach to
Asian women."

A struggle still exists for married women, especially among immigrants,
to vote independently of their husbands' or relatives' political views,
Huang said.

Women living in domestic violence shelters or other temporary
residences can be hindered from voting by fears of an abuser finding
their address on public voter rolls, said Cheryl O'Donnell of the
Washington-based National Network to End Domestic Violence. The
organization's VotePower initiative seeks to boost domestic violence
survivors' participation by educating them about safe and confidential
ways to vote.

"Because of the emotional and psychological tearing down of a person, a
lot of survivors don't believe that their voice matters," said
O'Donnell. "So the work we're doing with voters is we're actually
encouraging them to be a part of the political process and learn more
about their communities and have their voices heard."

Jacqueline Lee is a Los-Angeles-based reporter interning with Women's
eNews.

For more information:

Feminist Majority Foundation, Get Out Her Vote: -
http://feministcampus.org/vote/

White House Project: - http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/

Women's Voices Women Vote: - http://www.wvwv.org/