Voting and Contacting

This study examines voting and contacting public officials as two forms of local political participation in the suburban community of Garland, Texas. Voting and contacting are positively, but not very strongly, related. Two variables associate significantly with voting and contacting: (1) education level, which has a stronger relationship with voting than with contacting, and (2) interest in city government, which has a stronger relationship with contacting than with voting. These two correlates operate almost independently of each other. A typology of participants is presented and examined, and the utility of contacting as a linkage path in democratic societies is discussed.