Tennessee was ranked 50th in voter turn out with 29 percent in 2014 according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Graphic by Lauren Ratliff• The Daily Beacon
Volunteers lack voting spirit University reacts to executive orders Bradi Musil
Editor-in-Chief
Alex Holcomb Asst. News Editor President Donald Trump’s executive order rocks Rocky Top. Chancellor Jimmy Cheek addressed the UT community Monday, Jan. 30, to comment on President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which banned citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days. Trump also suspended the admission of all refugees for 120 days. “As the state’s flagship research university, we have a responsibility to enhance our education and research mission,” the Chancellor’s email read. “We are committed to protecting the rights and opportunities extended to all members of our academic community, and we will continue to recruit, retain and support faculty, staff and students from around the world.” See EXECUTIVE ORDER on Page 2
Volume 133 Issue 10
Tennessee ranked last in voter turnout data Annie Tieu Copy Editor
2014 Tennessee voter turnout rates were last place in the U.S., according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Charitable Trusts, an independent, non-profit organization, reports voting information for each state. The Elections Performance Index (EPI) collects data about presidential and midterm elections in each state. Although Tennessee’s election statistics are average in comparison to other states, according to the EPI, during the 2014 midterm elections, Tennessee was ranked 50th in voter turnout — a decline compared to 2012 when Tennessee was ranked 46th. Additionally, in 2014, Tennessee was ranked 40th in voter registration and 43rd in voting wait time at 6.6 minutes. The EPI also provides information about provisional ballots, availability of online registration and disability or illness related voting problems. Charles Stewart III, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, has been a consultant with the Pew Charitable Trusts for the last six years and has helped develop the EPI. “The biggest source of data for the EPI comes from ... the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the EAC,” Stewart said. “They have a big data project that is asso-
ciated with every federal election where they gather from states and localities a lot of information about the conduct of the previous election for every place that runs an election; so things like turnout, how many voting booths you have, how many provisional ballots, absentee ballots — just about every statistic related to election administration.” Information is also gathered from the Census Bureau as well as individual states. The work for the development of the EPI began in 2010, collecting data of the previous 2008 election. The EPI only shows election data for 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. When the data for the 2016 election is released, Stewart and his team will begin working on it. “I imagine that the EPI for 2016 will be released in April of 2018,” Stewart said. Much of the South had historically low voter registration rates. Turnout rates are also affected by election competitiveness between parties, and, because Tennessee has been a predominantly Republican state since 2000, people may not be motivated to show up to vote or compete with a different party, Stewart said. “Tennessee is a relatively poor state,” Anthony J. Nownes, a UT political science professor, said. “And, generally speaking, people with higher education and income tend to vote at a higher rate than people with less education and income. And Tennessee just happens to have a relatively large number of people who are a little further down on the socioeconomic status scale.”
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For others, the low voter turnout rates are the result of laws making it more difficult to vote. Tennessee voter ID laws can discourage people from voting, since people who may not have an acceptable photo ID may also be unable to acquire one in time to vote, Sarah Feroza Freeland, junior in political science and president of the UT College Democrats, said. “This law also severely suppresses turnout among students, because it does not accept student IDs as an acceptable form of photo ID, even though faculty IDs are accepted,” Freeland said. “This makes it difficult, especially for out-of-state students, to vote, since out-of-state drivers’ licenses are not accepted either.” While Tennessee has a low voter turnout, there are a few ways these numbers can be improved. Same-day registration, Stewart said, often sees the strongest increase in voter turnout rates. Tennessee will begin an online voter registration program this summer, which is expected to help boost turnout rates in upcoming elections. “It’s also the case that, having cleaned this data, we make available to scholars the raw data and the data that underlay this at the county level,’ Stewart said. “And we know that a lot of scholars have begun to do research on the topics that are covered by the EPI using the data that we’ve produced.” The College Republicans could not be reached for an interview.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017