Reduced Voter Participation in 2024 Los Angeles County Elections Compared to 2020 - Daily News (Re-phrased)
In the 2024 general election, voter turnout saw a significant drop compared to the previous year, according to a report by USC's Center for Inclusive Democracy. This decline was observed not only nationally but also in California and Los Angeles County.
Laurice Sommers, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles, believes that misinformation or disinformation may have played a role in deterring people from voting. The League of Women Voters is working to educate the public on how to spot inaccuracies and provide factual information, with the hope that this will lead to greater civic engagement.
Sommers expressed disappointment about the dropoffs in voter turnout among first-time and younger voters, but she also acknowledged that this trend is not necessarily surprising. In Los Angeles County, for instance, 33.2% of voters ages 18 to 24 who voted in 2020 stayed home four years later, which is less than half the drop reported among seniors 65 and older (14.7%). The same trend was observed statewide, with the percentage of voters ages 18 to 24 who didn't vote in 2024 being higher than seniors 65 and older (18.5% vs. 14.7%).
The drop in voter turnout was uneven, with certain minority groups and younger voters seeing larger drops in participation than other populations. Among Black voters, 19.6% statewide and 20.6% in L.A. County voted in 2020 but did not four years later. Twenty-five percent of Latinos statewide and 26.6% in L.A. County skipped voting in 2024, though they cast ballots four years earlier.
Mindy Romero, the director of USC's Center for Inclusive Democracy, expressed concern about the decrease in voter participation and the unevenness of the drop. She suggests that the government should invest more in providing local election offices with greater resources for voter outreach. Romero also believes that philanthropic organizations could help with investments to encourage people to participate and find the meaning in their vote.
Romero attributes the lower voter turnout in 2024 to an increasing number of eligible voters who may have grown frustrated with their options for president or wondered if their vote truly mattered. Nationally, although 2024 had one of the highest election turnouts of the past century, it was still lower than in 2020, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
The League of Women Voters is taking proactive steps to address this issue. They work with community colleges to encourage voter registration events and have worked with high schools to pre-register students as young as 16 to vote. By educating and encouraging voters, the League of Women Voters hopes to reverse the trend of decreasing voter turnout and foster a more engaged and informed electorate.
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