Employed

Per Capita Income

Above Poverty

Economic

Preschool Enrollment

Bachelor's Education

High School Enrollment

Education

Voting

Census Response

Social

Automobile Access

Active Commuting

Transportation

Insured Adults

Healthcare Access

Retail Density

Park Access

Tree Canopy

Neighborhood

Severely Cost Burdened Low-Income Renters

Severely Cost Burdened Low-Income Homeowners

Housing Habitability

Uncrowded Housing

Homeownership

Housing

Ozone

Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)

Diesel Particulate Matter

Safe Drinking Water

Clean Environment

Extreme Heat

Impervious Surfaces

Outdoor Workers

Public Transit Access

Sea Level Rise

Two Parent Households

Alcohol Availability

Supermarket Access

Decision Support

Everyone should be able to contribute their voice to the political process and to participate in their communities. Voter participation is an indicator of both social power and social cohesion. It has strong, but indirect, connections to health.

Communities with higher rates of voter participation typically have more social and political power than other communities and are often better positioned to successfully influence the local conditions that shape health.

 For instance, communities may advocate for beneficial social programs and education, or against the location of toxic facilities in their neighborhood. Voting is one important way in which social power is exercised in California, but far from the only one. Economic or institutional influence and community organizing can also influence community conditions. Yet there are few data sources, and none at the census tract level for the entire state, that measure these other mechanisms, leaving voter participation as an imperfect but necessary proxy.

Voting can also be an indicator of social cohesion, or the trust, relationships, social support and participation in a community or society. A number of studies, including several in California, have drawn connections between social cohesion and health.

 Social cohesion has also been found to be health protective during climate events and other disasters, helping people and communities respond and recover.

 Like social power, there are currently few data sources, and none at the census tract level for the entire state, that provide an adequate picture of social cohesion.

A longitudinal study of over 9,000 youth released in 2018 found a positive association between civic engagement (defined as voting, volunteering and activism) and income and education levels later in adulthood

; both are factors that can influence one’s health. In California, voter participation rates are inequitably distributed, with Latinos and Asians voting at much lower rates than other racial and ethnic groups, due to gaps in citizenship, voter registration and voter turnout. Other measures of political participation, such as engagement with elected officials, and participation in campaigns, meetings, protests, or consumer activism show similar patterns, reflecting broader inequities in political power.

This indicator measures the percentage of registered voters who voted in the 2012 general election.

Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, “Applying Social Determinants of Health Indicator Data for Advancing Healthy Equity,” 2015, https://www.barhii.org/sdoh-indicator-guide.

California Department of Public Health, “Healthy Communities Data Indicators Project: Voter Registration and Participation,” 2014, https://data.chhs.ca.gov/dataset/voter-registration-2002-2010/resource/fe57363f-07fa-42bc-aabc-4291e6b3babb.

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

Ballard, P. J., Hoyt, L. T. and Pachucki, M. C. (2018), Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood. Child Dev. doi:10.1111/cdev.12998.

John Dobard et al., “Unequal Voices: California’s Raical Disparities in Political Participation” (University of California, Riverside and Advancement Project, 2016).

https://irvine-dot-org.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/244/attachments/Unequal-Voices-Single-Page-Low-Res-7-1-16.pdf?1490230965

California Civic Engagement Project, UC Davis Center for Regional, “California’s New Political Realities: The Impact of the Youth Vote on Our Electoral Landscape,” 2015.

Riley, Kevin et al. “From Agricultural Fields to Urban Asphalt: The Role of Worker Education to Promote California's Heat Illness Prevention Standard.” New Solutions. 2012. 22(3):297-323

Increasing political engagement and community cohesion requires strategies specifically focused on voter engagement, as well as others that are aimed at increasing social power and connection more broadly.

Ensuring people are ready and registered to vote is an important first step in increasing voter participation. Local jurisdictions can 

 by streamlining the registration process through same-day registration, online registration and pre-registration of youth. These strategies make it easier for everyone to register, and also help to reverse the legacy of disenfranchisement in communities of color. Similarly, local governments can 

 creating opportunities for more people to vote by ensuring language and disability access and offering additional places and ways to vote.

Another set of strategies are available to increase social power and connection outside of the electoral arena. Local governments can 

 to create opportunities for meaningful political participation in government decisions about the community conditions that impact health. They can also form partnerships to 

. This involves nurturing health-supportive community networks, and supporting community voice and power to improve the conditions that shape health through strategies like community organizing and capacity building.

Ensure people are ready and eligible to vote by streamlining the registration process.

Equity

Sufficient Evidence

Same Day Registration

Online Registration

Pre-registration

Create opportunities for meaningful political participation in decisions about the community conditions that impact health.

Promising

Capacity Building and Civic Education

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Local Government

Campaign Finance Reform

Community Power and Connection

Emerging

Environmental Justice Element (SB 1000)

Proactively outreach to communities with low voting rates to boost voter engagement and reduce disparities in voting rates.

Get Out the Vote Technology (Emerging Practice)

In-Reach

Proactive Outreach and Education

Community-Based Outreach

Make it possible for more people to vote by ensuring language and disability access and offering additional places and ways to vote.

Vote by Mail

Accessible Voting

Municipal Elections

Nurture health-supportive community networks, and support community voice and power to improve the conditions that shape health. 

Policy Guide

Voting

References