Friday, April 10, 2009
Why the low voter turnout at local elections?
On April 7th, 2009, the voting booths were open in my home county of Illinois (McHenry).
According to the Northwest Herald, there are 200,853 registered voters.
Want to know how many showed up on April 7th?
About 31,000.
Less than 16 percent.
Now I have admitted to not being a long-time political activist - just getting in the swing of things the last couple of years - so I think I am going to approach this subject from a different perspective; somewhere in between "Why the heck aren't people showing up?" and "Who the heck cares?".
In 2008, we had a very dramatic Presidential election that, while it didn't dramatically increase the percentage of the youth vote (the Generation Y Democrats are just now voting), it certainly increased the enthusiasm of the percentage that actually did go out to vote. And while I believe that anyone with a "D" next to their name on the ballot would have won the election, it is also my belief that, to a certain extent, we had such an extraordinary candidate that he alone could bring people with him to the polls.
...kind of like the Chicago Bulls in the early Jordan years - it didn't matter if the Bulls were good or not, because Jordan was popular enough to have fans buy tickets to come to the games all around the league.
Comparing Obama to Jordan is a complement in terms of popularity, not just from a Chicago perspective, but from a Generation X-Y perspective. Everyone my age knows Jordan and what he meant to the league and the NBA.
But this is where the comparisons stop, because after Jordan retired, Bulls fans still bought tickets and still came to the games - all this despite being the worst team in the league for the first half of this decade.
Obama fans? Well, once the 2008 election was over, they felt little need to go back to the polls.
31,000 showed up for local elections in McHenry County on April 7th. Do you know how many people voted for the Presidential election in McHenry County? 137,133. President Obama received 72,288 votes by himself.
So what's wrong here?
I understand, and somewhat agree with, the argument that local elections aren't too popular at any time - that you don't get the glitz and the glamour of the nationally known figures on TV, yada yada yada.
But wasn't this time supposed to be different?
While the Bulls did have Michael Jordan and their championships, they knew the key to bringing in fans and generating revenue was to build a solid foundation of fans on a reputation of a family-friendly experience. They knew that Jordan couldn't play forever, so they had to also create an atmosphere where people of all ages would be welcomed with open arms, and they did so by making the games not just about basketball, but about entertainment. Soon, these people wouldn't be just fans, but they would be part of the Bulls family.
The bottom line is this - Democrats need to focus on the party and getting people involved with the party. We need to increase the size of our family.
We can't expect people to just show up to the polls for candidates. There is not enough money to do this. When I was phonebanking for our local officials, and I had a few people say they would not commit to voting because they did not know what sort of platform the candidates were putting forth. They did not know what the local officials stood for.
Really? These candidates are running for smaller offices on behalf of the Democratic Party! People don't have at least a vague knowledge of the core values they stand for?
It's not too late people, but for all the focus we have on finding future candidates that appeal to voters, we need to put just as much effort in inviting people into our party.
Listen folks, the core message is already there. We are already past the "Anyone But Bush" argument. People believe in our core values. They believe that education should be a high priority. They believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible. They believe in the benefit of social programs that bring us together. They believe that we need a government, even a local government, that should put the priorities of our towns and villages as a whole above spending tax dollars to benefit the wealthy.
Now sure, I am inexperienced politically, so maybe this has been done before, but has it? In my time of being a registered voter, I have gotten dozens and dozens of calls to vote for a candidates in a particular election, but not once have I gotten a call from either party for the sole purpose of wanting to educate me on their beliefs so I would support them in the future. I know dozens of people my age who don't know the difference between a Democrat and a Republican.
I believe that if we educate people about our beliefs, it will be a whole heck of a lot easier to count on people showing up on election day. But more importantly, we will establish a larger foundation. A bigger family.
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I just want to add to your overall message. The boomer generation have taken our income, opportunities, and leisure time for themselves. They fought against raises at our jobs for newly hired workers. They shipped jobs overseas so they don't have to pay us as much as we deserve. We work more hours without overtime by working "off the clock" as professionals and retail workers. And they want us to pay for their social security. there are 9 million more baby boomers than generation Xers and we are stuck with less income, more work, and taxes for their retirement and maintenance. I say we rebel by fighting to make social security benefits age requirement to unable to work. We should unionize and protect jobs here by making subsidies for new technology manufacturing. White color positions should be unionized to so we can stop shipping software and call center jobs to asia. Lets start the GEN XY party and stop them from destroying our future!!!
ReplyDeleteArthur, If you are looking for someone to blame, boomers are the big easy target, but the finger pointing explains nothing and leaves you with no rational plan of action. Speaking as a baby boomer, I find the gross generalizations here pretty unproductive. It seems you are blaming an entire generation for the misdeeds of a few at the top of the power pyramid.
ReplyDeleteI've lost two jobs to outsourcing overseas. I'm making less now than I did 10 years ago. I expect to never be able to retire. Most of my boomer friends are in the same boat. I'm pro-union and consider myself a left-wing Democrat. I've been working for economic justice and peace for over 30 years. I have also lost good jobs just because of my political beliefs. I am hardly unique. In fact, I'd say I am a pretty average boomer.
There are many, many more boomers who are on your side than not. Arthur, if you are saying Social Security should be limited to those who are physically unable to work, then you are condemning your generation to even LESS economic security and a wretched future. It's not a future I would choose for anyone.
Unionizing jobs in the US will do NOTHING to prevent the jobs from being shipped overseas. Until the unions are truly international and protect workers EVERYWHERE, wages HERE will continue to decline in real dollars. The SEIU is the first labor union to understand this, and I hope they succeed in getting workers organized on a global scale. If corporations are allowed to become international forces more powerful than most nations, then workers must seize the power of massive collective bargaining.
THAT is where the struggle for economic justice will play out in this century. We are all sitting in the same leaky boat right now. Sawing off the boomer half of the boat will not save your half from sinking.
Ed, I am extremely happy that you have chosen to get involved in local Democratic politics. We need about 500 more people with your energy and ideas and we'll be in good shape. Seriously.
You know, when voters tell you they won't commit to voting and say it's because they don't know the candidate's positions, they are telling you a big fat lie. That's NOT why they won't vote, but it's the easy excuse. They don't vote because they don't care. You can't MAKE them care unless you can make them realize they have a personal stake in the outcome. That's really, really hard to do. It's MUCH easier to get a voter to switch parties than it is to get them to vote when they normally don't vote.
There's no shortcut to local political success. Candidates must canvass relentlessly. Candidates must make a connection with every voter by shaking hands and looking them in the eye and asking for their vote. And candidates must spend money to get the message out. Candidates who cannot or will not do these things will lose. Period. Phone banking is a very weak substitute for real campaigning in local elections.