Driving Turnout: The Effect of Car Ownership on Electoral Participation

24 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2020

See all articles by Justin de Benedictis-Kessner

Justin de Benedictis-Kessner

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Maxwell Palmer

Boston University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: October 18, 2020

Abstract

Inequalities in voter participation between groups of the population pose a problem for democratic representation. We use administrative data on 6.7 million registered voters to show that a previously ignored characteristic of voters – access to a personal automobile – creates large disparities in in-person voting rates. Lack of access to a car depresses election day voter turnout by substantively large amounts across a variety of fixed-effects models that account for other environmental and voter characteristics. Car access creates the largest hindrance to voting for those people who live farther from the polls, for young voters, and for non-white voters. These effects do not appear for absentee voting, suggesting a simple policy solution to solve large disparities in political participation. This study contributes to the theoretic understanding of political participation as well as the impact of potential policy reforms to solve participatory gaps.

Suggested Citation

de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin and Palmer, Maxwell, Driving Turnout: The Effect of Car Ownership on Electoral Participation (October 18, 2020). HKS Working Paper No. RWP20-032, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3714420 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3714420

Justin De Benedictis-Kessner (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Maxwell Palmer

Boston University - Department of Political Science ( email )

United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
67
Abstract Views
485
Rank
728,917
PlumX Metrics