Voter Participation (Presidential) - Age 65+  in South Carolina

South Carolina

Voting is a form of civic participation associated with better health. Research suggests active social engagement can improve mental and physical health by providing a greater sense of belonging, purpose and support. Elected political representatives influence daily life by shaping policies that govern the distribution of power and resources impacting individual wealth, work conditions, education, housing, social services, and health care access and quality.

Older adults requiring disability accommodations face additional barriers to voting. A 2017 study found that 60% of sampled polling sites had one or more features that could impede voting, and only 17% of sites fully accommodated people with disabilities. When asked, 30% of adults with disabilities cited difficulty voting at a polling location, compared with 8% of adults without a disability.

Interventions are needed at multiple levels to increase voter participation in the United States, including: 

• Simplifying voter registration processes. 
• Changing voter identification laws that unfairly disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities.
• Expanding when and how people can vote through early voting and absentee ballots. 
• Ensuring polling places are accessible to all voters, including people with disabilities, on election days and for early in-person voting. The Administration for Community Living has voting resources for older adults and adults with disabilities.

Many national and state-level organizations are committed to improving voter access and turnout. One such organization, Vot-ER, promotes civic engagement by empowering health care institutions and providers to register patients and others in their institutions to vote.

Healthy People 2030 identifies civic participation as a key issue in the Social and Community Context domain of the social determinants of health.

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Dawes, Daniel, and Juan Gonzalez. “The Politics of Population Health.” The Milbank Quarterly 101, no. S1 (April 2023): 224–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12603.

Hajnal, Zoltan, Nazita Lajevardi, and Lindsay Nielson. “Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes.” The Journal of Politics 79, no. 2 (2017): 363–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/688343.

Rome, Sunny Harris. “Why Voting Matters.” In Promote the Vote: Positioning Social Workers for Action, by Sunny Harris Rome, 31–49. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84482-0_2.

Schur, Lisa, Mason Ameri, and Meera Adya. “Disability, Voter Turnout, and Polling Place Accessibility.” Social Science Quarterly 98, no. 5 (November 2017): 1374–90.https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12373.