THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509260424
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 191 lines
Ruth and George Vann have lived in their Hodges Manor neighborhood for nearly 40 years. They know most of their neighbors - including folks who live three streets over.
And they can tell you which ones usually vote.
The Vanns never miss an election, and where they live, they are not unusual.
Their Portsmouth neighborhood has the highest and most consistent voter turnout in all of South Hampton Roads, according to an analysis of recent voting records.
In the past three elections, including for city council, governor and U.S. Senate race, an average 68 percent of registered voters there went to the polls.
Contrast that with the Timberlake precinct in Virginia Beach, which is similar in many ways to Hodges Manor.
Both neighborhoods are mostly middle class, both racially mixed, both boast a blend of blue and white collar residents.
But only 35 percent of registered voters in Timberlake went to the polls over the same three elections, making it one of the worst precincts in the area at casting ballots.
Those who study voting patterns say the disparity is not surprising.
It all boils down to people feeling an investment in their community and a desire to remain and improve it.
Most of those living in Hodges Manor precinct - 65 percent - were born in Virginia. They have a history and a sense of community that goes back to childhood.
The area has a large retired population. When their kids were young, they walked to schools. Many found jobs nearby.
For years, Ruth Vann volunteered with neighbors at Maryview Hospital. She and her husband are active in their church. George, 72, likes to visit hospitals trying to cheer up patients.
They don't think of themselves as community activists, and they don't go to civic league meetings - although they know the members and know who to approach if they have a neighborhood concern.
Timberlake precinct is much newer.
There, longtime residence is counted in years, not decades. There is less history, and therefore less sense of community.
Patricia McNeely, a Texas native and mother of two in Timberlake, said she had never voted in Virginia. ``I just never take the time,'' she said. ``I guess I need to do that.''
She likes her Timberlake neighborhood, but isn't a member of the civic league.
Because she's lived in Virginia Beach for only two years and doesn't know much about it, she cares more about national elections than local ones.
``I just don't like living in a commonwealth,'' she said, explaining her lack of interest in state issues. ``I'm proud of being from Texas. . . . I'm just here, working for the day we can go back.''
But when her 8-year-old son Aaron piped up that he wouldn't vote when he gets old enough, McNeely quickly corrected him.
``Yes you will,'' she said, running her hand through his hair.
Those who have examined the problem say that most people who chose not to vote, like McNeely, don't have enough of an investment in their community.
``Voting is the last thing you do in a democracy,'' said David Matthews, a member of President Ford's cabinet who, as president of the Kettering Foundation, now studies politics as a dimension of every day life.
``Once people find things they are interested in and they get invested in those issues,'' he said, ``then they'll come out and vote, and they'll keep voting.
``Before they vote, they have to be convinced there's something going on in government that they can have an effect on.''
Those who have studied the trend can't point to any one thing that has led to the national decline in voter participation.
William H. Wood, executive director of the Virginia Institute of Political Leadership at the University of Virginia, says the breakdown of political organizations could be partly to blame for the drop in voting.
In an earlier era, precinct bosses or political machines would rally voters to come out and cast their ballots, Wood said. Now the machines are gone and parties and other organizations have less influence.
``I do think that fewer people belong to political parties,'' Wood said. ``They are not part of an organization that gets out and votes.''
There also isn't one thing that will turn it around, get people interested, invested and participating in their community, academics said.
John Brehm, an assistant professor of political science at Duke University in Durham, studied the connections between civic participation and political participation.
He said that when people are connected on a local level, they also tend to become interested in state and national politics.
``There are a number of ways in which the connection might work,'' Brehm said. ``People who are participating in a variety of social levels - not necessarily political - are more likely to have a belief that their actions will make a difference, that you can do something that matters.''
Brehm said his research shows that social and political connections are intertwined.
And America's always moving population makes those connections harder to forge.
``The less you have at stake in a community, the less invested you are,'' Brehm said. ``If an individual can always see an opportunity for exit, then they don't have a compelling belief that have to make things work where they live.''
That could partially explain the low turnout in some of Hampton Roads' more transient areas. Many residents are in the military and continue to vote by absentee ballot in their hometowns. Others may register in Virginia but have little interest in local issues.
More than half the people in Hodges Manor have lived in that neighborhood for at least five years. By contrast, in Timberlake only a quarter have been there five years, and less than 40 percent are Virginia natives.
And the way Virginia keeps record of its voters may make participation figures look worse in transient neighborhoods. You have to miss elections over four years to be purged from the voting rolls, noted Del. Frank W. Wagner, whose legislative district includes the Timberlake precinct. In many cases, people are counted as registered voters - and therefore Election Day no-shows - years after they have moved away from the area, he said.
Greg Brooks, a 30-year-old storekeeper for the Navy, has been in the Timberlake precinct for less than a year. He moved there last December from Charleston, S.C.
His home is part of a cluster of townhouses on Ship Chandler's Wharf, a circle of renters and homeowners off of Dahlia Drive.
He is politically active, but not here. He sends absentee votes back to his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., and, therefore, rarely follows Hampton Roads' races.
That doesn't mean he feels his neighborhood lacks a sense of community, Brooks said. Adults watch out for the neighborhood children. And there is the occasional block party.
``But we tend to get involved in the military community,'' said Brooks. ``And that keeps us out of this community.''
Often, people equate voter registration with voting.
Chesapeake, at 72 percent, has the highest rate of registered voters in the region and falls 5th among the state's cities.
Franklin is right behind with 70 percent and Suffolk comes in at 12th in the state, with 63 percent.
Nearly 60 percent of the voting age population is registered in Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, putting them in the middle of the pack.
Norfolk, however, ranks third from worst among Virginia's cities, with 42 percent of the eligible population registered to vote.
But registration figures don't tell the entire story. They don't guarantee people will get involved in campaigns or even cast a ballot.
Brehm's studies indicate that income, employment and marriage are all just modest predictors of political participation.
He sees a need to teach the value and mechanics of community and civic participation in the high schools.
``People need to acquire the tools to understand their role in the political world - knowing what possibilities that are available if you have political grievances,'' Brehm said. ``But education also teaches the importance of contributing back. It's that we learn we have a responsibility to give to society.
``It doesn't make sense to participate if you're only asking what's in it for me; there are more efficient ways to get things,'' he added. ``It's important for the survival of our government that it's the other way around too.''
George Vann encourages his unregistered neighbors to get involved.
``I've heard some say they don't have time,'' Vann said. ``I don't think they feel a need.''
But Vann sees voting as more than an obligation or right. It's an opportunity.
``I'm very hopeful,'' he said, ``that elected officials in state and national government are going to bring changes that will make a difference in years to come.'' MEMO: Staff writers Lise Olsen, Karen Weintraub, Mac Daniel, Francie Latour,
Tony Wharton and Alex Marshall contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff color photos
HODGES MANOR, Portsmouth
TIMBERLAKE, Virginia Beach
Graphics
NEED TO REGISTER TO VOTE? HERE'S WHERE TO GO
You can't vote Nov. 7 if you have not registered by 5 p.m. Oct.
10.
You need to register if you are new to the area, have never
registered to vote, haven't voted in the past four years, or have
moved since you registered.
For information, call the voter registrar's office in your city:
Chesapeake, 547-6141; Virginia Beach, 427-4667; Norfolk, 664-4353;
Portsmouth, 393-8644, and Suffolk, 925-6391.
[For a list of places to register, please see microfilm]
STAFF
PARTICIPATION AMONG VOTERS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: VOTING HAMPTON ROADS TIDEWATER VOTER
REGISTRATION by CNB