During the first 100 years of its existence, the United States witnessed voter turnout in excess of eighty percent of those eligible. After 1896, however, that number began to drop, dipping below sixty percent for the next three presidential elections while midterm turnout plummeted even further. A growing disinterest in politics, a two-party system that offered limited choices, and legal restraints were responsible for the decline.
While the marque 1960 presidential election between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon led to a 75 percent turnout, the number again dropped dramatically after the turmoil of the 1960s and the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, oscillating as low as 25 percent while only reaching a high of 50 percent during the years afterwards.
With the 2016 presidential election rapidly approaching, writer G. Willow Wilson decided to explore the reasons why Americans don’t vote in her Ms. Marvel comic book. The title character of the series is a Pakistani-American teenage girl named Kamala Khan who lives in Jersey City and acquires the superhero ability to morph her body into different shapes and sizes. Khan had never previously taken an interest in local politics before issue thirteen of Ms. Marvel, but that changes after her same age brother-in-law suddenly shows up at her high school.
“Something weird happened yesterday,” the boy says. “We got notice from the city saying our neighborhood was being redistricted? So now, like, I’m in a totally different school attendance zone, and my parents are in a totally different voting precinct.”
Determined to get the bottom of the matter, Kamala transforms into her Ms. Marvel persona and pays a visit to the mayor of Jersey City. “The city was redistricted months ago to reflect current demographic trends,” the mayor explains. “We’re just getting around to implementing those changes. I appreciate your concern. Bring it up to the state assembly if you’re worried. But I’m telling you, it’s nothing.” As he speaks, however, the mayor writes a single word on a piece of paper and silently shows it to Ms. Marvel – “Help!”
Ms. Marvel immediately seeks the assistance of her computer-proficient friend Michaela “Mike” Miller, who discovers that the new electoral districts weren’t approved by the state assembly and appear to have been redrawn to give the mayor’s opponent a better chance at winning the upcoming election. That candidate turns out to be Chuck Worthy, a member of the sinister Hydra and an adversary that Ms. Marvel has fought in the past.
The tactic of redrawing electoral districts to give a particular political party an advantage is not limited to fictional comic books. In 1812, Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry redrew the boundaries for state senate seats in such a twisted and spiraling fashion that one district appeared to resemble a salamander. It was quickly referred to as “Gerry’s salamander” before being shortened to simply “gerrymander,” a term still used for the rigging of elections by redrawing electoral districts to benefit one party over another.
Ms. Marvel is determined to prevent Chuck Worthy from being elected mayor because of gerrymandering in Jersey City and thus decides to “knock some sense into a few people.” Mike Miller, however, suggests a different way to defeat the Hydra agent. “Worthy’s actually doing very badly in the polls,” she explains. “Hydra’s counting on the fact that only 36% of registered voters turn up for local elections. If everybody voted, the cracked-and-packed districts won’t be enough for Worthy’s majority.”
“So I gotta convince people to choose between an incumbent nobody likes and a fringe candidate working for a secret society of evildoers?” Ms. Marvel asks, to which Mike replies, “Welcome to democracy.” She also mentions an alternative – a third party candidate who was once the city librarian and also served on city council. All Ms. Marvel needs to do is drive enough votes in Stella Marchesi’s direction and she would be elected mayor.
The 2016 book Why Don’t Americans Vote: Causes and Consequences notes that a lack of political efficacy is a major reason for low voter turnout in the United States. If a person has a solid understanding of how the government operates and is likewise politically aware, they are more likely to vote. This is referred to as internal political efficacy.
External political efficacy exists when a person believes the government is being receptive to both their needs and viewpoints. Again, the more someone has faith in government, the more likely they are to vote. On the other hand, if someone feels ill-equipped to vote or believes that the government is not responsive to their needs, they are more likely to remain home on election day.
In addition to internal and external efficacy, there are other reasons that influence a person’s decision to vote – or not vote – on election day, and Ms. Marvel encounters many of them as she knocks on doors in Jersey City.
“They all suck,” someone says of the candidates. “I don’t have time,” a mother of two responds. “I want to vote, but the boss won’t give me time off to stand in line at the polling station,” a construction worker replies. A young couple can’t remember if they’re registered, meanwhile, and a college student is unsure if he can vote in Jersey City since he lives out of state. Then there’s the grumpy old man who simply exclaims, “I haven’t voted since 1972! I’m protesting all the things!”
Ultimately there is a “cost” involved in voting, and each voter needs to decide if the “benefits” gained from voting outweigh the cost. The responses that greeted Ms. Marvel reflect many of those costs – from the single mother needing to balance voting with raising two small children and the construction worker who can’t risk losing his job, to the young couple and college student unsure whether they are registered or entitled to vote. The benefits of voting, meanwhile, derive from the belief that the right to vote is a privilege, and that voting not only makes one part of the political process but enables their views to be heard as well.
In order to increase voter turnout in the United States, one has to show that the costs are not as high as imagined and that the benefits outweigh those costs. Within the pages of Ms. Marvel, the superhero’s responses to the former effectively mirror those outlined in Why Don’t Americans Vote. “Most states have mail-in ballot options if you can’t get to the polls,” she explains to the mother of two before turning her attention to the others she encountered throughout the day.
“Your boss is required to give you time off to vote. If they say you can’t leave work to go to the polls, they’re breaking the law.”
“You can totally register to vote in the state where you go to college, as long as you’re not also registered to vote in your home state.”
“There’s no such thing as protesting-by-not-voting in a country without compulsory voting in the first place. Not voting isn’t a protest. Not voting is the norm. By not voting, you’re not sending a message – you’re just lumping yourself in with the millions of people who didn’t vote because they don’t know how or they don’t care.”
Finally, in terms of all the candidates being “terrible,” Ms. Marvel says, “Yeah, sometimes they’re not that great. But that’s because democracies are coalitions. The parties all have to compromise in order to govern. You’re gonna have to compromise something. The question is what.”
Although the Ms. Marvel comic book doesn’t highlight the benefits of voting, the end results of Ms. Marvel’s efforts underscore those benefits nonetheless. “In an election with an unprecedented 90% voter turnout, former city librarian Stella Marchesi has edged out incumbent John Woodby and frontrunner Chuck Worthy to become Jersey City’s mayor-elect,” a news reporter announces, proving that an engaged electorate is indeed capable of instituting real change – if only they go out and vote.
Anthony Letizia