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Efforts To Promote Voting By Mail May Help Ensure Strong Voter Turnout Among Both Young And Old Voters In Cuyahoga County's Fall 2020 Election, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Voting by mail (VBM) has been a well-established practice in the State of Ohio for many years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Cuyahoga County's Fall 2016 election, for example, more than 193,000 voters (31.8% of all voters) chose the VBM option to cast their ballots.

Individual voter records are confidential. Yet in a previous Focus on Facts the author described a method to analyze publicly available voter records that produces reliable estimates to describe the demographics of who votes (race, age, neighborhood, etc.).

Figure 1 reveals how the use of VBM varied by age group among Cuyahoga …

Reliance On Voting By Mail Could Reduce Voter Turnout Among Black And Hispanic/Latino Voters In Cuyahoga County, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Those who urge greater reliance on voting by mail (VBM) argue that VBM will help increase voter participation and reduce exposure for populations with greater risk for the COVID-19 disease. Yet an analysis of 2016 voting behavior in Cuyahoga County suggests that VBM could result in suppressing voter turnout among Black and Hispanic voters unless outreach to those populations can increase their confidence in, and preference for, using the postal service to cast their votes in the 2020 general election and beyond. This is a particularly important in the coming election due to the likely risk of exposure to COVID-19 …

Vote By Mail By Race And Hispanic Ethnicity In Cuyahoga County, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The current arguments to increase voting by mail rather than at the polls may result in suppressing voting by Black and Hispanic voters unless outreach to those populations can increase their confidence in and preference for using the postal service to cast their votes in the 2020 general election and beyond. This is a particularly important in the coming election due to the likely exposure to COVID‐19 at the polling places should the pandemic be still a significant health risk at places of congregation.

"Don't Count Us Out!" Who Is Likely To Be Missed In The 2020 Census?, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Targeted for April, the 2020 Census is around the corner. The Census Bureau, news media, state and local governments, and national and local non-profit organizations are all working hard to convince the public that responding to the Census is safe, confidential, and very important.

Yet we know some people will be missed. "Omissions" represent people who should have been counted but were not. In the 2010 Census the national rate of Omissions was 5.3 percent of total population, versus 3.5 in Ohio. Other national rates were: 9.3 percent for African-Americans; 7.7 percent for Hispanics; 3.8 percent for non-Hispanic whites; 8.5 …

Why Do We Still Conduct A Costly Census Of All U.S. Residents Every Ten Years?, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Who hasn’t heard that the 2020 Census is upon us? The anticipation and anguish about missing large numbers of persons (again!) is in the news and on social media daily. The Census Bureau is posting daily news releases. Public officials and nonprofit leaders are rallying to get the word out about the importance of the decennial Census. Last year we saw widespread political opposition to the Trump administration’s attempt to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census form because opponents argued it would decrease participation within the Hispanic community.

The case for accurate data about all U.S. residents …