Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities: Voting
Text Version

Narrator: The qualitative source is the Board of Elections voter registration qualifications.
(visual description: text on screen starts with “Using Qualitative and Quantitative Information to Answer a Research Question,” followed by a snapshot of the Voter Registration information on Eligibility. Under the question “Am I eligible to register to vote?” the following is listed: To register to vote, you must be a U.S. citizen; a Maryland resident; and at least 16 years old. You may register to vote if you are at least 16 years old but you cannot vote unless you will be at least 18 years old by the next general election. You cannot have been: convicted of buying or selling votes; Found by a court to be incapable of voting by reason of mental disability; or convicted of a felony or if you have, you have completed a court-ordered sentence of imprisonment, including any term of parole or probation for the conviction.)
Narrator: This information tells you that people who are United States citizens living in Maryland over the age of 16 are eligible to register to vote unless they have a mental disability or are a convicted felon still serving a court-ordered sentence of imprisonment.
(visual description: a red pencil underlines the following terms: “A U.S. citizen,” “A Maryland resident,” “At least 16 years old,” “reason of mental disability,” “Convicted of a felony,” and “sentence of imprisonment.”)
Narrator: After reading the voter registration eligibility requirements, you can see that one piece of information needed is to find out how many people are ineligible to register to vote. There are three quantitative forms of information. The first, The Sentencing Project, displays the number of people who are ineligible to vote due to felony convictions.
(visual description: text on screen says “3 quantitative forms of information,” followed by a snapshot of the chart from the sentencing project that displays the number of prisoners, parolees, felony probation, jail, ex-felons, total, voting age population, and percent disenfranchised according to state.)
Narrator: Note that there were 63,588 people ineligible to vote in 2010 in the state of Maryland.
(visual description: a red pencil underlines the number 63,588 displayed on the total column for Maryland.)
Narrator: The second quantitative source of information, the census data for Maryland, shows that there were 4,584,109 people living in Maryland over the age of 16 in 2010.
(visual description: text on screen says “2nd quantitative source of information,” followed by a snapshot of the chart from the census data for Maryland that displays the median age of 38 years, and the number of people 16 years and over, 18 years and over, 21 years and over, 62 years and over, and 65 years and over. A red pencil then underlines the number 4,584,109 and the category 16 years and over.)
Narrator: This data can be compared to the description of voter registration in Maryland that tells us that anyone 16 and older who does not have a mental disability and who is not a convicted felon serving a court-ordered imprisonment is eligible to vote.
(visual description: the screen displays the Voter Registration information on Eligibility, with the following underlined in red: “A U.S. citizen,” “A Maryland resident,” “At least 16 years old,” “reason of mental disability,” “Convicted of a felony,” and “sentence of imprisonment.”)
Narrator: The third quantitative source of information is the reported number of registered voters in 2014 in the state of Maryland from the Maryland Board of Elections.
(visual description: text on screen says “3rd quantitative source of information,” followed by a snapshot of the chart for Eligible Active Voters on the Precinct Register – By County that displays the number registered voters for the Democratic Party, Republication Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, other party, unaffiliated with any party, and total according to county.)
Narrator: From this source, we know that there are a total of 3,701,665 registered voters in the state of Maryland for the 2014 election.
(visual description: a red pencil underlines the number 3,701,665 reflecting the total of registered voters.)
Narrator: Refer to the glossary for the meaning of the abbreviations used indicating voter political party affiliation at time of registration.
(visual description: the screen focuses on the abbreviations DEM, REP, LIB, GRN, OTH, and UNA.)
Narrator: Now that you have gathered the data, the final step is to compare the number of people eligible to register to vote in the state of Maryland with the number of registered voters in Maryland.
(visual description: text on screen says “Final step” and “compare the number of people eligible to register to vote with number of people registered to vote.”)
Narrator: To calculate the number of people eligible to register, we need to know the population of people 16 or older, and then subtract out those people who are ineligible (felons in prison.) This gives us 4,584,109 minus 63,588. We get, 4,520,521, which is the number of people eligible to register to vote.
(visual description: screen highlights the number 4,584,109 from the census data chart, followed by the number 63,588 from the sentencing project chart. The numbers are then displayed as an equation: 4,584,109 minus 63,588 equals 4,520,521.)
Narrator: From our information on registered voters, we know that there are 3,701,665 in Maryland. Therefore, almost 82% of the people in Maryland who are eligible to register have registered to vote.
(visual description: screen highlights the number 3,701,665 from the Eligible Active Voter chart. The following equation then appears on the screen: 3,701,665 divided by 4,520,521 equals 81.88 percent.)
Narrator: Now that you have looked at both qualitative and quantitative forms of information, you are prepared to answer the research question: Evaluate how well Maryland citizens are fulfilling their civic responsibility to vote by taking the first step, registering to vote?