Voter engagement through civics and political literacy

UNSPLASH

Disparities between voter registration and ballot participation are common, especially in municipal and off-year elections. In 2024, 73.6% of the voting-age population was registered, but 65.3% cast a ballot according to the Census Bureau

For democracy to work, it needs participation. 

Politics is everywhere and affects all of us, whether it’s lawmakers approving legislation, or appropriations for programs ranging from the military to roads. In America, voting and engagement are civic responsibilities.
In the 2024 presidential election 73.6% of the voting-age U.S. population was registered to vote and 65.3% cast a ballot, according to the Census Bureau. In North Carolina, 65% of registered voters cast ballots, and participation was nearly even by gender, with 65% of women voting compared to 64% of men. Sixty-nine percent of white non-Hispanics participated, followed by Black voters at 61%, and 49% among Hispanics. 

Voter participation generally falls dramatically for off-year and municipal elections. In Charlotte’s 2025 municipal elections, in which voters decided on a contentious 1% transit tax 22% of registered voters cast ballots. 

North Carolina Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed contends there are many reasons for the lack of political engagement, including economic stress. 

“For the vast majority of North Carolinians, it’s the rising cost of housing,” the Mecklenburg County lawmaker said. “It’s their groceries being expensive, gas prices being high, access to healthcare being super expensive. I don’t think people are disengaged or that they don’t care. I think they’re often juggling life. Every day I think families are just trying to make ends meet.”

Rafael Alcazar is a 79-year-old veteran. Originally from Cuba, he has lived in five countries and in Charlotte the last two decades. He has seen the city change before his eyes,

“I've been in Charlotte now since 2007,” he said. “I’ve seen it grow – I think a little bit out of hand. [It] used to be a place where you could buy a house a lot easier than in a lot of other places in the country. Now it’s really catching up very quickly to where the cost of living here in Charlotte has done quite a bit in the last five years.”

For many, there are mixed feelings and mistrust about politics. Alcazar understands why some may not be disinterested.

“It’s very difficult to sit down and look at somebody who is giving out a message based on a concept that may or may not happen, even if they do get into office,” he said.

NILES RANDOL

Niles Randol, a 21-year-old student at Central Piedmont Community College believes politics can be overwhelming, which is why he limits what he follows.

Niles Randol is a 21-year-old student at Central Piedmont Community College. A broadcasting major studying audio and visual design, he believes politics can be overwhelming and dislikes how government is conducted. 

“When it comes to more local government or state government, I don’t follow as much, just because, as someone who’s not a big fan of the current [federal] administration, I am constantly on the lookout for whatever moves they’re making and how I need to adjust my daily life around that,” he said. “I think the hardest part is someone who wants to stay up to date with all of those…just because there is so much happening in so many different places.”

Randol adds economic concerns add another layer of anxiety and frustration. 

“Someone who’s…entering true adulthood and doing things like looking for jobs and someone who's recently got their license, having to worry so much about the price of things, how likely I am to get a job, and how likely I am to afford food, housing, and all this other stuff – it’s very important to me,” he said.

Terza Lima-Neves, a Johnson C. Smith University political science professor and chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies, said the nation’s contentious political and social landscape is a deterrent to free expression, especially in public. 

“It hasn’t always been like this,” she said. “Things are a little bit different in the United States right now because of the racism, the history of oppression in this country. White supremacy has impacted the United States. … Folks are tentative to have conversations, because emotions and feelings are really high right now.”

Fear and resentment aren’t the only reasons for political disengagement. There’s also a lack of communication between political leaders and their constituents, which Lima-Neves believes civics education can address. 
“I'm particularly interested about young people and political literacy, and voters,” she said. “I think that we’re not getting information to young people.

“Political literacy should begin somewhere around middle school. Maybe we don’t describe it as political literacy. We say what it is. We say that we want you to be knowledgeable about your community, who’s making decisions.”
Mohammed contends it’s important to close the knowledge gap with clear information and make it accessible to connect with and engage voters.

“I think the burden of unelected officials to get out and meet people where they are,” he said. “It’s more important for elected officials to explain to the people in plain, simple language about what’s happening in their government and how it’s affecting their everyday lives.

“I think people deserve those clear, honest answers, and not just like complicated jargon or things that they aren’t interested in, but I think more importantly, that’s when you’re going to get more engagement.” 
Majeed Ederer, an intern at Queen City Community Law Firm, contends U.S. political culture leaves constituents cut out of the decision-making process and taken for granted. 

“They’re under the false belief that their voice couldn’t matter,” said Eder, a junior political science and cultural studies major at JCSU. “Our system is designed to make the average person believe that because that is how the system perpetuates itself. “Even if you don’t care about politics, [it] for sure cares about you.” 

That’s where collective advocacy is key to democracy. Ederer encourages people who are politics-curious or newcomers to the voting process to reach out connect with organizations that can amplify their voice.

“Your representative won’t care … if you come as an individual,” he said. “Having small house meetings, especially if they’re part of…a local nonprofit, you’ll actually see much greater results because individually we have political power, but only as a collective.”

Mohammed adds organization boosts community involvement as well as the work of resolving issues. 

“These are good ways to understand the issues because there's some people that are your friends and your neighbors and other parents that are already working and care about these same issues,” he said. “You might find community there, where you can support one another in order to accomplish your goals.” 

Mohammed believes focusing on local politics can be much more manageable to digest than at federal. Focusing on the nation’s capital, where bureaucracy slows decisiveness even under ideal conditions, means seeing limited progress.

“I think people have to first of all begin to think about what’s happening locally before even Washington D.C., or the federal government,” he said. “I think that’s some of the biggest frustrations that people have with Washington D.C. is that their lives don’t change what’s happening between the president and Congress.” 

Lima-Neves advises reading beyond headlines and to not to take everything at face value. In terms of social media, “it’s more about how many views and likes” posts tally for algorithms, making disinformation and misinformation dangerous.

“I’m going to say for people to fact-check as much as they can because there’s a lot of wrong information being disseminated,” she said. “I would ask people to be very mindful of where they’re getting information. I think many of us are quick to believe what we read in the headlines. Don’t just see a headline and say this tells me the whole story.”

Even during a tense period in America’s political and social history, Alcazar still stands by U.S. democracy, which in his experiences with different forms of government in multiple countries, is still better. 

“I believe in the systems that uphold this country,” he said. “We may not like it sometimes, but it does continue to work, so I believe in that, and I believe in the country because of that.” 

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