When we’re sick, the first step on the road to recovery is a visit to the doctor’s office. It turns out the same may also be true for breathing life into America’s democracy. A Rutgers University–New Brunswick study published in the journal JAMA Health Forum finds that physicians can play a crucial role in strengthening political inclusion of marginalized groups by aiding patients in voter registration.
“Hospitals aren’t the first place we think of when it comes to voter registration,” said Katherine McCabe, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the School of Arts and Sciences and lead author of the paper. “But our study finds that by bringing voting registration resources into health care institutions, health care professionals have the potential to reach a type of voter that otherwise might be left out of the political process.”
In the United States, 72 million eligible voters aren’t registered, nearly a quarter of the voting-age population. Three decades ago, lawmakers seeking to expand voting access passed the National Voter Registration Act, which mandated that government facilities – including state motor vehicle agencies and federal assistance offices – provide voter registration support. Hospitals and health care settings weren’t included in the law. To read the full story.