Re: The vanishing voter

[Dana ACLP]

You state:     It could very well be that I have once again missed some important point about VAP, but I am unclear that we are talking about unregistered potential voters. If we are, then I am with you 100%!   Yes Paul, these voters are NOT registered they are the VAP that has not registered or made any political decisions.   You State: I gave out the wrong link for some of the information I gave out. According to Colorado's VAP we have 3,067,000 million people in the VAP. Of that number 2,274,152 million people are already registered to vote. [|>] [|>] Aha! So does this mean that we have 2.2 million unaffiliated registrants? Or are these people that were registered period and simply did not vote?   Sorry Paul I wish the number in Colorado was that high, it means we have a chance at 792,848 not registered voters in Colorado. These people are of voting age but they have never registered.   You also state:   ----- Original Message --  c.. that attack journalism has eroded trust and interest in partisan politics, particularly among young adults; [|>] [|>] and we do this too. Many of our candidates point a finger at the other two parties, or the system. Young people seem to be okay with attacks on the system (just as I am). It is impersonal. You can easily screw yourself if you attack a candidate or incumbent that is well liked (even if we consider that person ineffective or a sellout). Our opinion should not reflect a negative value. We can say that we can do amazing stuff, and talk about it, but not say that we will do better than the other guys or slam them for not doing as good of a job as we might.   According to the surveys done in the Vanishing Voter- it is the young generation that does not like all of the political attacking going on in campaigns. Your right we should never show a negative value.   You State:       d.. that soft news has reduced the level of election coverage which, in turn, has reduced the frequency with which Americans think and talk about the campaign; [|>] [|>] Not sure that I agree with this. In legislative election years we hear about the candidates and races as much as ten months before, with lots of general coverage until about a month before elections and then it is unceasing. For presidential years, we hear about that race as much as two years before. Lower races in the same year may attract less attention I tend to think the opposite is true, in that Americans are tired of hearing about what legislators and candidates have or have not done, and what they are promising to do next. Continual sensory overload about politics.   You don't have to agree with the facts about "soft news"  but there polls say that the younger generation grew up on entertainment. They have waaaaay toooooo many choices. When we were growing up our parent's talked about politic's in the home, with there friend's, family. Not now, life is to full of thing's to do and no one takes the time to discuss issues. They are becoming pampered by the media, the choice is not "cold hard fact's" but about Joe Millionaire the entertainment sector.   Can we teach liberty & entertain at the same time???     g.. that registration closing dates and poll closing hours continue to keep some Americans from exercising their right to vote; and [|>] [|>] Colorado�s 29 day close for regular registrations is not a bad thing (IMHO). The clerk�s don�t have the bandwidth to certify all the registrants within a smaller time frame. They do allow special registrations up to the day of elections, but those are few. After the elections in Boulder, it was found that 17 dead people had voted, along with some other registration anomalies. I will agree that 8am to 4:30pm does cause a problem for most people. ---   In Adams county they have provisional voting- where if you agree to vote by mail & you don't get it in the mail. You also no longer have the right to go cast a regular vote. This is unfair to the voter taking from them there right to vote.   You State:     f.. that the declining audiences for election telecasts are in part a function of sharp cutbacks in the broadcast networks' coverage, which has reduced the number who "inadvertently" tune to these telecasts; [|>] [|>] I think that your earlier post has something about the declining number of television sets in a proportionate number of homes since the 1960s. This needs to be counted in a part of the equation as to who is tuning in. The TV is fast becoming obsolete for broadcast reception. The TV is the extension of the DVD and video decks, and cable. Cable has long coverage, but all at the national level. Local broadcasts of a political nature on cable are nearly non-existent. For the most part, the personal computer has taken the place of TVs in most households. There are two of each in my home. It is nearly impossible to have the same effect on the internet as you would TV. One is point to point and the other point to all. Fortunately, the Rs and Ds are using the internet in the same way that they use TV and it does not work. We do a better job here. We should stick with it, because we can�t afford TV and it may not be worth the $$$ spent.   Don't cut us short on this Paul yes it does cost dollars, T.V. is where you are influencing the most of our population STILL!!!!!   You State:   If we can change our campaign techniques then we should, If we can make educational pamphlets to interest the low income americans we can up our number's. [|>] [|>] IMMAGRANTS! They are one of my two focal points. Immigrants that seek citizenship or have just become citizens; and high school students   Paul- low income americans come from all cultures and it doesn't necessarily mean they are young or immigrant's. Yes your new citizen is more concerned with our politic's then our own people and they are a good place to start. And starting with those 16 and up are a good idea. How about the black, white, red, or brown low income person they need to be motivated in to becoming interested. I know that low income families seem to come from household's where alcohol, & drug's are problem's.& highschool education is rare. Can we campaign politics to the dysfunctional?   You Stated:   The soft news story was to show what has happened to broadcasting of political views, that people no longer tune there t.v.'s in b/c of campaign techniques, and the soft news presented. In soft news they explain people still want hard news, it makes them listen. But b/c there is so much entertainment in the news sector today that those interested have shut there t.v's off. They are no longer getting the fact's so they no longer tune in in election years. [|>] [|>] BINGO! Entertainment rules. The disaffected are not listening. We can�t make TV in any form our focal point. There are some LPers that think that we need to make a big splash on TV, and I think that no one will see it. I personally don�t think that making videos for public access TV is the same as wasting our efforts on commercial TV. People who watch public access are interested in something different, and it is not usually entertainment.   I agree Paul, Public Broadcasting is where you can actually sometimes use your right to "freedom of speech" & get your message out...And your audience is one of information not entertainment.     And the part about being a ass well we all become one of them from time to time.  I think your doing just fine. Keep up the good work.   Thanks, Dana