What Is the Value of Participation?

28 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2019 Last revised: 21 May 2020

See all articles by Chad Flanders

Chad Flanders

Saint Louis University - School of Law

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

In the days after the 2012 presidential election, the pictures became drearily familiar: long lines at polling places from Election Day; people waiting four, five, even six hours in order to vote. The causes? Not enough polling booths. Not enough election workers. Voting machines that did not work, or were too old. Early voting days that were off, then on, then off again. The results? Confusion. Frustration. What might have been an inspiring picture, had it been the first election in some recently democratized country, instead turned into an embarrassment. Even Russia-a famously dysfunctional polity-got into the act. In a twist, instead of the United States sending election monitors overseas, the Russians had their election monitors monitor us. They reported back that our election machinery was not fit for a first-world country. Had it happened anywhere else, we might have called the election illegitimate. Many American commentators piled on, saying that we needed to do something to fix the way we run elections.

Suggested Citation

Flanders, Chad, What Is the Value of Participation? (2013). Oklahoma Law Review, Vol. 65, No. 53, 2013, Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper 2013-34, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3466347

Chad Flanders (Contact Author)

Saint Louis University - School of Law ( email )

100 N. Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63101
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
22
Abstract Views
232
PlumX Metrics