Overview of Voting and Registration

Comparing students who attended a Key to Community session versus those who did not, there was a significant increase in voter registration -- i.e. a gain of 15 percentage points from the pre-program questionnaire among participants, compared to a shift of only four points for the non-attendees:

The number of new voters registered at the Key to Community workshop varied by location (depending on how many students were already registered before they attended). Based on interviews with the site coordinators, estimates of new registrations among all attendees varied from 10% to 50% to 80%.

In fact, high levels of registration and voting were reported by both attendees and non-attendees at many of the partner locations. We attribute this to the fact that the Key to Community project was accompanied by corollary classroom activities provided by instructors at some of the partner locations which reached students who did not attend the 'official' Key to Community presentation at their site. As a group, the students at these participating locations reported voting at a rate close to double their demographic counterparts across the state:

It should be acknowledged that the data are based on reported behavior so there may be some inflation of voting levels if some respondents said they voted even if they didn't (because voting may be seen as a socially desirable behavior). On the other hand, since one of the main purposes of this study is to examine barriers and motivators to voting and civic participation, we will focus on the relative responses among different groups - and expect that any positive response bias would be spread evenly among them.

The key measures of concrete participatory behavior examined in this study were registration, voting and being involved with a community group. Exhibit IV lays out these behaviors on the basis of different demographic variables. Several factors appeared to have a positive directional relationship with both voting and community involvement: increasing age, greater levels of education, having been married, the presence of children in the household and length of time one has lived in a community. Gender also seemed to play a role in community involvement but not enough men were included in the sample to be confident in this outcome. Also, the base sizes on the ethnic groups are too small to report any conclusions.

Of these factors, age and education level were the variables that also had the highest correlation with the attitudinal measures associated with participatory behaviors. Therefore, they will be a main focus in the presentation of these findings. Nonetheless, it should also be kept in mind that age may also be a convenient "proxy" for the related lifestage factors of marriage, children and length of time in community.

This relationship between registration, voting, age and education level observed in this study is consistent with published polls in California (e.g. the Field Poll and Los Angeles Times Poll). However, the greatest distinction between voters and eligible non-voters in this study was whether they felt they had "enough information on most of the choices" in making their voting decisions. The factor most related to this was receipt of the Easy Reader Voter Guide - i.e. those who received a copy of the guide were significantly more likely to say that they felt they had enough information to make their voting decisions:

Increasing Civic Involvement

The in-depth interviews with students at three of the twelve partner locations provided an opportunity to more closely examine specific shifts in involvement. The interviewees began the project with different levels of experience that form a continuum of voting and community involvement behavior. After participating in the Key to Community project, each respondent increased their involvement along at least one dimension -- and in many cases a step or more on both.

The continuum of involvement

The following examples of increased civic involvement illustrate these stages and shifts:

Motivating New Voters

The Key to Community project appeared to help reduce intimidation for many of the first time voters. For example, a young woman in Sacramento said: "I registered last year but didn't end up feeling ready to vote. I didn't read any of those papers they sent to the house." For this election she did read and use her Sample Ballot: "the night before I marked the book so I wouldn't waste time at the polling place." She said getting ready to vote was easy because of the information she received in class.
A 19 year old in Baldwin Park who voted for the first time said she was nervous as she went to the polling place, but she found "in two minutes I was done. I didn't think it was going to be that easy...Even though there are things I voted on that didn't win, there are other things I voted on that did win...it felt really good to know that I voted and maybe made a difference."

A 25 year old woman in Sacramento shared that her aunt had been upset with her when she found out that she had never voted. Asked how it felt after voting for the first time, she said "I'm really impressed with myself. After I voted, I wanted to call [the aunt] and say 'I did it!'"

"A lot of the students who attended were first time voters. Key to Community was extremely helpful in presenting material and getting the main points across to those who may have had a hard time understanding the importance of voting and getting involved." - Merced teacher

More informed voters/outreach to others

Of the students who were interviewed who had already been voters, many increased their level of involvement with the voting process as a result of the Key to Community activities provided by their adult school or literacy program.

An African American woman in the Berkeley program was a lapsed voter. A visual impairment has made it "not as enjoyable to keep up with the issues." She said "I probably wouldn't have registered to vote if I hadn't come to the workshop." She did vote in the November 5th election.

A 39 year old woman in Baldwin Park has always been an enthusiastic voter. She drove some of the neighbors in her apartment complex to the polls. But she admitted, "before I didn't use to vote on the measures." While she sets aside everything that comes in the mail to read before the election, "reading up on the laws and studying the pamphlet...it's hard to read." This time, she used the Easy Reader Voter Guide to learn about the measures because "it's easier to read than the big pamphlet."

Site coordinators noted that one of the immediate outcomes of the Key to Community project was new interest among learners in other election information. In Chula Vista, one of the literacy programs devoted a writing session to watching the Presidential Debates. The Berkeley Coordinator reported that: "[This learner] really got excited by the workshop. Right before the election he came to the program and discussed how he was going to vote on the issues." In Willows, the coordinator said that students "started listening to debates, and overhearing conversations in grocery stores" that prompted them to bring more questions to her after the workshop as the election got closer.

In addition to becoming more involved with the content of the election, many of the students took a new step by sharing election information with others:

"The workshop was really informative. I brought a lot of the information back to my wife. She has always refused to vote and I used the information to help talk my wife into voting. I also got several friends to vote. We sat down and discussed all the issues and candidates."
- Sacramento man

"She became so excited that although she had never voted before, she took copies [of the Easy Reader Voter Guide] to Head Start and Laney College...she is a soft-spoken shy person, but she got the word out." - Berkeley Coordinator

"One of my learners wants to become more involved in the Spanish speaking community by helping distribute the Spanish version of the Easy Reader Voter Guide."
- Santa Fe Springs Coordinator

A young man from Mexico who attends the Berkeley Reads program is not yet a citizen, but is active with a group that supports new citizens. After seeing the Easy Reader Voter Guide at the workshop, he arranged to get several copies plus other Key to Community handouts for use at a voting fair for new citizens.

A 17 year old at Baldwin Park was disappointed that he wasn't old enough to vote in this election but he had conversations with his older friends at school "and I encouraged them to vote. I told them we're in this country, at least we can vote. People in other countries don't have the right to vote." He also gave copies of the Easy Reader Voter Guide to his older siblings and talked to them about his point of view on two ballot measures he had studied and felt strongly about.

At the Merced Adult School, an instructor arranged to have several students attend a Key to Community training session. These students in turn presented the Key to Community workshop on three other occasions for their peers. The instructor was pleased that, "the student presenters have become empowered."

Similarly, other student presenters for the project gave generously of their time and offered the Key to Community voting workshop to seniors groups, community groups and also other literacy programs that were not part of the original schedule.

Increased interest in community involvement

In addition to voting, participants in the Key to Community program became more engaged with other forms of community involvement. One young African American man listened to the concerns of older people in the issues discussion at Berkeley and noted that many of these "are still going on. If it's still happening now, then something's wrong." He increased his involvement with a community outreach organization he had joined. "The discussion motivated me to help other people."

One young woman in Sacramento had been thinking about local daycare. Based on some comments at the jobs forum about the need for better daycare, she began researching different ideas about how to improve the quality of daycare for her sister and friends.

A mother in Baldwin Park has been interested in helping at-risk youth find more activities and interests. As a result of attending the forum on juvenile violence, she connected with one of the moderators about groups to get involved with. She also talked about becoming a literacy tutor.

Some of the site coordinators and instructors noted that just participating actively in the issues discussion was a significant step toward increased involvement:

"I was amazed to see the enthusiasm of the students...they expressed their views with zeal and concern for the community." - Merced Regional Coordinator

"The intention of the forum and the workshop was to get students to think and motivate them to act in whatever small or grand way. I noticed students became more aware...of each other, of issues in the community, and of the importance of voting."
- San Diego Literacy Coordinator

"The students in our program, mostly ESL, are usually quiet and not very outspoken. I noticed a couple of students speak out and share their experiences in the forum and then ask good questions during the [voting] workshop. They definitely got more involved and their level of interest in community increased." - San Jose Coordinator

Mandatory versus voluntary participation in Key to Community

For several of the students who were interviewed, the impact of the Key to Community project did not seem to vary whether participation was for class credit, or voluntary out of curiosity, or because of peer connections. Many participants specifically cited the program as the motivating influence in changing their behavior.

One Chinese woman said that she only attended the forum "because the teacher asked us to go. I didn't want to go because I didn't know what was going on." Despite her discomfort about her English language skills, she was an active participant in the forum discussion and "liked it...you have a chance to learn how others think, their point of view and that's very important."

A young Hispanic woman in Baldwin Park wasn't sure she wanted to go to the forum on juvenile violence. " I didn't want to go at first, I wasn't interested. I decided to go because I was there and they had a baby sitter and they said they'd give me [class] credit if I went...it was really interesting. I was so excited about what we discussed there that I came home and talked to my husband about it. You usually hear problems about juveniles but you don't hear the real problems or what can be done."