![]() Notably, private entities, with fewer governance and funding considerations, may have even broader latitude to engage voters than federally funded organizations. ![]() Nonprofit and private health organizations, particularly community health centers and safety-net hospitals that serve vulnerable communities, are well poised and eligible 9 to promote nonpartisan voter participation in furtherance of health-advancing public policy. Public policy shapes our health ecosystem, influencing the accessibility of comprehensive health care, secure housing, nutritious food, quality education, jobs with livable wages, and freedom from crime and discrimination. For example, state electorates with disproportionately higher rates of healthy voter participation saw less health spending and less generous Medicaid programs, 7 reinforcing disparities in health care coverage. 7 Thus a negative feedback loop is created, wherein health disparities generate biased voter participation gaps these gaps yield biased heath policy, further reinforcing health disparities. 5 Furthermore, politicians are more responsive to voters than nonvoters, 6 and healthier constituents vote more frequently. Research has demonstrated that the views of voters in the 2016 election diverged significantly from those of nonvoters, with the former favoring less inclusive health, social, and economic policy. 3, 4 Those facing barriers to the voting process are also those disproportionately at risk to suffer from health disparities. The United States is host to avoidable and costly health inequalities. Ballot barriers have evolved from the original constitutional disenfranchisement of people of color and women to more contemporary voter suppression techniques such as voter ID laws and voter registry purges, but the outcomes of biased elections and perpetuation of inequity remain. 2 Barriers to the ballot have long been a threat to our country’s most fundamental democratic process. 1 Significant gaps in voter participation occurred along racial, educational, and income-level divides, which may largely be attributable to voting restrictions and a sense of alienation from government. In 2016, more than 90 million Americans, nearly 40% of our voting-eligible population, did not vote.
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