News Flash: Giving People Real Choices Gets Them To The Polls
Posted by Phoenix Woman on August 11, 2010
Much of the talk I’ve seen on the nationally-oriented political blogs — such as my other blogging home, FDL — is about how the Democratic turnout was really, really low in yesterday’s primaries, and a sign of Democratic dispirit.
The big exception: Minnesota. Per the Strib, the turnout was almost 590,000 voters, or 15.5%. That’s the highest since 2000, and included more than 31,000 absentee ballots.
Why the eagerness in Minnesota, when it’s been absent elsewhere?
One reason could be this, as Spotty mentions in his discussion of how Mark Dayton won last night’s primary:
“Oh dear!” say some; he’s fomenting [spell checker helpfully offers fermenting] class warfare! The class warfare, however, has been mounted by the wealthy on the rest of us, and they’ve been winning it.
It surprises me not at all that the candidate who seems to understand that essential truth, and said so directly, won the primary.
Indeed.
2 Responses to “News Flash: Giving People Real Choices Gets Them To The Polls”
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Mercury Rising 鳯女 
Nell said
Minnesota was an exception, but not the exception to generally low turnout (which I’d have to think is more to be expected from August primaries than almost any other month). Here’s the Colorado experience:
The number of ballots cast — more than 713,000 as clerks worked into the evening processing all the votes — was an all-time high. The turnout rates — over 40 percent for both Democrats and Republicans — matched or exceeded the turnout rates for all primaries going back at least three decades, according to archived data from the secretary of state.
The basic point of the post is reinforced: real choices promote voting.
Phoenix Woman said
Indeed. Though a worrying sign for Dems in Colorado is that both GOP candidates got more votes than did Bennet. Dan The Nutjob Maes got 196,560, Scott McInnis got 191,209, Michael Bennet got 183,521, and Andrew Romanoff got 155,016.