Are government employees more likely to vote?: An analysis of turnout in the 1996 US National Election

In this paper we develop and test a model of voter turnout that permits us to differentiate turnout rates for government employees and other citizens, controlling for the effects of a wide range of other variables relating to turnout. Using 1996 ANES data, we find that there is a significant difference in turnout rates for bureaucrats and nonbureaucrats, both in simple bivariate analyses and in a full multivariate model. The magnitude and significance of the coefficient for government employment, even in the face of controls, suggests there is something about government employment per se that has an effect on turnout.