Linn County maps least-likely voters

He's not sure what to do about it, but Linn County Auditor Joel Miller knows where the county's most apathetic voters are.

“I haven't figured out what to do with it, but I'd like to figure out if anything I would do would do any good,” said Miller.

Using voter registration information, Miller's staff found that barely half the 769 voters in Cedar Rapids' Precinct 6 have voted over the past two years. That 50.2-percent non-participation rate is the county's highest, but the county's 10 lowest-performing precincts all recorded participation rates under 70 percent.

Cedar Rapids 6 lies roughly between the Time Check and Czech Village neighborhoods, both hard-hit by the 2008 flood, on the Cedar River's west bank. But Miller noted the flood-affected area's poor turnout pre-dates the flood.

“The June '08 primary would've been included in that,” he said, noting the sample period also includes contested congressional and presidential elections that fall (77 percent turnout countywide) and the March 2009 local-option sales tax referendum in Cedar Rapids.

“With all those things going on, all those people not being engaged in any election is really kind of incredible,” said Miller.

Nine of the “Bottom 10? cover the Wellington Heights and Moundview neighborhoods, through downtown and south along Interstate 380 to the Kirkwood Community College area. Marion's Precinct 3, on the city's east side along Highway151, rounds out the list.

The figures are for currently registered voters. Miller said 98 percent of the county's eligible voters are registered, thanks largely to the “motor voter” provision offering registration with driver's license renewal. That brings 60 to 80 new registrations each day, he said.

Miller noted the low-participation neighborhoods tend to be transient, with lots of apartment complexes and mobile-home parks. Those residents are notoriously hard to reach for get-out-the-vote efforts.

“The parties have a hard time getting into those,” he said, because private owners of apartments and mobile home parks often ban door-to-door solicitations. “The only way you can get to those people are mailing and phone calls, and most of those people probably have cell phones.”

Still, Miller would like to give it a try, maybe with help from a local civic group.

“You got to get them engaged first and then you've got to motivate and remind them,” he said.

Miller said any such effort would require the approval of both major parties, so he wouldn't be accused of trying to boost turnout along party lines.

Check out the map of Linn County's least-likely voters:

% Registered Voters Who Have Not Voted Since 12-31-07 Detail

% Registered Voters Who Hav... by The Gazette