And Now an Answer to My Question About Voter Drop-Off
At a panel, sponsored by SLU law school, that I sat on before the election, I addressed a quesion to the audience for which I did not know the answer. The basic question involved how the ending of straight-ticket voting might combine with the extremely high turnout for last month’s election to affect whether some voters skip lower races on the ballot. The conventional wisdom was that the elimination of straight-ticket voting would lead to greater voter drop-off, but I wondered whether the high turnout, and resulting long lines, would increase or decrease that effect. In other words, would somebody who just waited in a long line, and had in the past voted straight ticket, now simply punch the top item and leave? Or would the long wait make them more likely to complete the entire ballot? “I waited two hours to vote, so I might as well fill out the whole ballot,” they might reason.
Well, the numbers and analysis are in, and the former hypothesis appears to have been the case. The Associated Press has a great story in the Columbia Daily Tribune about the numbers and counts. According to the story:
More than 2.9 million people in Missouri voted for president – nearly 200,000 more than in 2004. But compared with four years ago, tens of thousands more voters trailed off, skipping races for the state Legislature and even for governor.
So, in the end, more people came out and more people just voted for the top race and skipped off. I can’t fathom doing that, myself, but what do I know? Governor? Some people could not bother to go down one space further and even vote for governor? I mean, I can at least understand skipping the judges, but governor?
I completely agree. Why wait 2 hours at the polls to just barely have your voice heard? I have a suggestion, during that 2 hour wait, educate yourself on all those races. The lower down the race the more impact it will probably have on your day to day life. People need to take an active role and cash in the currency that gives them a stake in our democracy when they can.
Thanks again for doing that panel you were awesome.
Comment by PME — December 1, 2008 @ 3:45 p.m.
This is understandable and sad for two reasons.
The federal government has become so powerful in people’s lives that they 1)think the president is the only government official worth worrying about and 2)ignore the government offices much closer to them and their problems, the ones more likely to be able to address them individually. I am for free markets, but I am also for decentralized governments. If government solutions can work, they will work best when they are closest to those affected.
Comment by Josh Smith — December 2, 2008 @ 1:09 p.m.
Mr. Smith is correct in pointing out that due to federal agression (especially since the Seventeenth Amendment) increasingly nullifies the importance of state governments.
There’s nothing wrong with not voting on every single position/issue.
Comment by Joe Nonnenkamp — December 4, 2008 @ 2:44 p.m.
To be clear, I never said there was anything wrong with not voting on every issue. I had merely wondered how the combo of no straight ticket voting and high turnout would react, and I got my answer. That said, it is sort of pathetic to just show up to vote on one issue and not go to at least some of the others. And I’ll caveat that criticism to exempt the very small number of people who consider everything and then make a conscious choice to just vote on one issue and leave the rest untouched. For most people it’s just being lazy, or worse.
Comment by David Stokes — December 4, 2008 @ 2:50 p.m.