Georgetown University.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2021 Jun 1;46(3):409-433. doi: 10.1215/03616878-8893529.
Voting is the central instrument of democracy, yet there are a number of impediments that affect citizens' ability to turn out to vote. Health is one such impediment.
This study draws on 2012 and 2016 election data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and the American National Election Studies and uses objective validated measures of voter turnout as well as postelection data on respondents' reasons for nonvoting to examine the relationship between self-reported health and voter turnout.
The results indicate poor health depresses turnout among low-income voters but not high-income voters. A low-income citizen in poor health is 7 points less likely to turn out to vote than a low-income citizen in excellent health is. In contrast, a high-income citizen in poor health is just as likely to vote as a high-income citizen in excellent health is. Moreover, low-income citizens in poor health are 10 points more likely to cite sickness as an impediment to voting than are otherwise similar high-income citizens who are also in poor health.
The findings have implications for health policy and unequal electoral engagement and suggest that health may narrow the scope of US democracy as poor health pushes low-income citizens out of the electoral sphere while high-income citizens continue to turn out to vote regardless of their underlying health conditions.
投票是民主的核心手段，但有许多障碍影响公民投票的能力。健康就是其中的一个障碍。
本研究利用 2012 年和 2016 年选举数据，来自合作国会选举研究和美国全国选举研究，并使用客观验证的选民投票率衡量标准以及对受访者未投票原因的后期数据，来检验自我报告的健康状况与投票率之间的关系。
结果表明，健康状况不佳会降低低收入选民的投票率，但不会降低高收入选民的投票率。身体状况不佳的低收入公民比身体状况良好的低收入公民投票的可能性低 7 个百分点。相比之下，身体状况不佳的高收入公民与身体状况良好的高收入公民一样有可能投票。此外，身体状况不佳的低收入公民因健康问题而投票的可能性比身体状况相似但健康状况不佳的高收入公民高 10 个百分点。
这些发现对健康政策和不平等的选举参与有影响，并表明健康状况可能会缩小美国民主的范围，因为身体状况不佳会将低收入公民排除在选举领域之外，而高收入公民无论其基本健康状况如何，都会继续投票。
