CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With Election Day only weeks away, WalletHub released its findings for the most and least politically engaged states in America, and the Palmetto State was unfortunately toward the bottom.
According to the study, South Carolina ranked 45 out of 50 in its political engagement study. Nearby North Carolina came in at 37.
The metrics WalletHub used to determine this ranking spanned 10 key metrics, including registered voters, voting participation, political contributions and voting accessibility.
"Turnout can be a function of perceived competitiveness, so states with close races, such as Georgia or North Carolina Senate Races, could see an unusually high turnout for a midterm election cycle," Rebecca C. Harris, who is a professor of politics at Washington and Lee University, said. "Turnout is also a function of the perceived threat from policy decisions, so turnout could be high in states with controversial debates close to home, such as border issues in border states or abortion issues in states where the legislature or Governor has been rolling back access."
When it came to political engagement among young people, South Carolina came in at 53.4% engagement, which equated to ranking 17th in the nation. South Carolina's political engagement among those 65 years and older was much higher at 72.4%.
"State-by-state differences in political engagement are driven by some factors, including the political culture of the state, barriers to political participation, and recent political events," Daniel Aldrich, professor and director of the security and resilience studies program at Northeastern University, said. "For example, research shows that minority voters are more likely to not vote because of structural and institutional barriers rather than a desire not to do so. That is, environmental and administrative conditions make it harder for them. Minority voters have less access to public transportation to get to the polls, a lack of translated voting materials (for people for whom English is a second or third language), and jobs that typically provide less freedom of movement to go wait in lines to vote (with average wait times in Florida close to 50 minutes), fewer voting stations because of precinct closures and therefore longer wait times at the polls (Blacks and Hispanics waited for an average of 20 minutes longer than their white counterparts in previous elections), and face voter-ID legislation (in places like Wisconsin) along with deliberate attempts by government officials to purge voting records in which minority voters are overrepresented (forcing minority voters to reregister if they want to vote)."
That all being said, 2022 is a midterm year instead of a presidential election, which typically has lower participation. Despite record-high numbers of people voting in 2020, it still only accounted for less than 67% of the voting-age population.
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