The midterm election seems to be everywhere.

Turn on the television and political advertisements burst onto the screen. Open a newspaper and stories about Tuesday's election come gushing out.

It seems as if it's the biggest thing going on.

But for a large chunk of the population, it's simply not.

These people aren't interested in policy debate or campaign promises. These people aren't interested in politics or politicians. And these people choose to stay as far away as they can.

It's true in every election cycle.

Consider what happened in 2016.

There were more than 245 million people of voting age, but only 157.6 million actually cast ballots in the general election - a turnout rate of just 56 percent.

And that was with the presidency up for grabs. Even fewer turn out for midterm elections.

So while Tuesday's election carries enormous political stakes, history shows the vast majority of eligible voters will stay home.


Brian Clapp, who has never cast a ballot, said he considers the process of electing officials meaningless.

"The local candidates put their annoying campaign ads on TV, where they focus almost solely on smearing their rivals rather than focusing on addressing issues that need to be fixed like property taxes and getting the state's minimum wage raised," said Clapp, 41, of Muhlenberg Township. "It looks like candidates don't have to work to earn votes anymore because so many people pledge their allegiance to whichever political party they blindly support. All the candidates need to do is label themselves either Democrat or Republican."

Clapp said his family feels the same way. His father and three sisters have never voted, have never been registered to vote and have no desire to change that anytime soon.

"I have seen so many political social media posts and commercials on TV that are so ridiculous that they just don't compel me to want to vote," he said. "There's so much fake news on social media, so much news that's one-sided, and every time there's an election there's a three-ring circus surrounding it. It's ridiculous."

Jen Olivares has spent the first 70 years of her life on the outside of the political system looking in, and said she has no regrets.

"I don't think my vote counts," said Olivares of East Cocalico Township, Lancaster County. "Only a few voters help decide the Electoral College, so I feel like it doesn't matter anyway. They might as well just throw away the votes if they aren't going to count them."

Olivares said she would be willing to cast a ballot if the U.S. decided to get rid of the Electoral College.

"If we switched to the popular vote I would vote, but I just don't see the point with the way things are now," she said, citing the 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College.

Kevin Bragg of South Heidelberg Township said he used to vote, but stopped about five years ago.

"I think the system is broken," said Bragg, 63. "The politicians - on both sides - are out for themselves. They don't care about us. They make promises with no intention of keeping them just so they can get elected. And then when they get elected they stay there for decades."

Pablo Mora feels the same way.

Mora, 23, of Reading said that while politicians often say they care about the struggles and hardships of those they represent, he believes politicians have no interest in actually solving the problems facing their communities.

"Nothing they say is relevant to me and my life," he said. "I could do a better job at educating myself about the issues, but when you don't have faith that they'll fix anything what's the point?"

The missing voters

These voters have been missing from the local voting booths for quite some time. But they are not alone.

Turnout in the 2016 presidential election was 61 percent of the voting age population in Pennsylvania and about 55 percent of the voting age population in Berks County.

Kevin Boughter, chariman of the county Democratic committee, said the No. 1 reason people give for not voting is that their vote doesn't matter. But he said that's the easy way out.

"When it comes down to it they are saying they don't want to make their voices heard," he said. "They can't be bothered to take the couple minutes a year to vote. They're lazy."

Clay Breece, chairman of the county Republican committee, said he believes people feel disconnected from the decisions that are being made in Harrisburg and Washington - and because of that never made the effort to be part of the system.

"They just don't see the value in it," he said. "They're not voting because it's been instilled in their brain that it's not important. They've had a lousy civics upbringing in their schools."

A difficult process

The difficulty of voting is also a concern for some.

In an analysis of state voter registration laws, a group of researchers from Northern Illinois University ranked Pennsylvania 31st in terms of how easy it is to cast a ballot.

The study, published in the Election Law Journal, created a cost of voting index using 33 variables regarding registration and voting laws, then ranked each state according to the time and effort it took to get to the ballot box in each presidential election from 1996 through 2016.

The authors of the study wrote that wide variations among the 50 states are impacting the quality of democracy in the U.S. They argue that because states can influence who votes by making it easier or harder to cast a ballot, they are likely shaping election results to help ensure those with power stay in power.

"The ballot box is the central democratic institution," lead author Scot Schraufnagel wrote. "Voting and elections are key to democracy. One of the things that define the competency of an electoral system and the legitimacy of governing institutions is the ease in which you can vote."

Improving the ease to vote nationwide, the authors wrote, potentially could bump voter turnout by about 10 percentage points.

Among the most restrictive registration and voting laws were those that mandate photo ID requirements, limit early and absentee voting, reduce polling hours and ban minors from registering before they turn 18.

But the study found the largest barrier to voting is a fixed registration deadline with no option to register at the polls.

"For now, we can safely argue that if states desire higher citizen participation rates in elections, a reasonable place to start would be a same-day voter registration policy," the authors wrote. "It is common for people to move, and the burden of getting reregistered to vote a predetermined number of days before the general election makes voting costlier."

Pennsylvania cuts off voter registration 30 days before an election - the most allowed under federal law.

Making it easier

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and several Senate Democrats threw their voices behind a sweeping series of election reform proposals this spring. The governor said he was looking for action on bills to make elections more accessible.

The reforms he supported included same-day voter registration and expanded absentee balloting opportunities.

But those bills never gained traction in the Legislature.

Boughter said it's clear Republicans aren't interested in making the process any easier.

"The reason why nothing happens is because the Republicans are in charge, and they don't want people to vote because when people come out to vote they lose," he said. "The actually want to make it harder to vote. That's what voter suppression is all about."

Boughter pointed to a 2012 state law spearheaded by Republican legislators and signed by a Republican governor requiring voters to produce a state-approved photo ID at the polls. The bill passed almost entirely along party lines; the entire Democratic caucus voted against it, and all but three Republicans voted in favor.

Two years later, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled that the law hampered the ability of hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians to cast their ballots and that the argument for the law - that it was needed to combat voter fraud - was not supported by the facts.

Breece said there is nothing hard about voting, and would like to see legislators fight the ruling on the voter ID law.

He said voter ID laws are necessary to stop voter fraud.

"It's not hard to vote," he said. "The problem with voting is that it's not difficult. I think what you have to realize is that voter fraud is real and it happens. I think the public has woken up to the fact that voter fraud is real."

Contact Karen Shuey: 610-371-5081 or kshuey@readingeagle.com.