Let's end the economic disparity in voting and win better policy

The top 1% knows that every vote matters.

members of the top 1 and .1 percent turned out to vote in 2008 at a whopping 99 percent.
(more)

Unfortunately voter registration and participation among lower income Americans is much lower than the average.

poor people actually don't vote that often. According to a CNN exit poll in 2008, those making less than $15,000 a year made up 13 percent of the population but just 6 percent of voters...

If all income groups had voted evenly, Obama would have beaten McCain 55.2 percent to 42.7 percent, a net gain of 5.3 points relative to what actually happened.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Clearly, nonvoters lean Democratic

A 2012 Pew survey found that likely voters were split 47 percent to 47 percent between Obama and Romney while non-voters preferred Obama 59 percent to 24 percent, a 35 point margin.

Source: http://www.politico.com/...

Differences in voting rates exist along other socioeconomic characteristics as well: e.g. age, gender, educational attainment and race/ethnicity (with Latinos and Asian Americans participating less than whites and African Americans).

Voting disparity across educational levels is still evident within specific age groups. (And level of education is a good proxy for income, given current educational policies.)  

Can the Democratic primary process capture the attention of the country and focus it upon economic issues? Can we end this income disparity in voter turnout?

The groundbreaking nature of Obama's candidacies led to an upsurge in African American turnout in 2008 and 2012 (see two graphics below), suggesting it's possible to also increase turnout among lower income people. Can we preserve those gains in voter turnout and make new ones?