there is an election campaign underway in Ontario. Predictable. Sort of
like wrestling on TV. Or better yet, mud wrestling. Lots of sound and fury
signifying nothing.
arthur
from NewsScan Daily, 3 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")
WORTH THINKING ABOUT: (NON)VOTER APATHY
Author Thomas E. Patterson offers this description of America's
"Incredible Shrinking Electorate":
"The voting rate has fallen in nearly every presidential election for
four decades. An economic recession and Ross Perot's spirited third-party
bid sparked a healthy 5 percent increase in 1992, but turnout in 1996
plunged to 49 percent, the first time since the 1920s that it had slipped
below 50 percent.
"Many expected turnout to rise in 2000. The Clinton-Dole race four
years earlier was one-sided from the start. The contest between Al Gore and
George W. Bush, however, looked to be the tightest since 1960, when John F.
Kennedy won by the slim margin of 100,000 votes. 'Close elections tend to
drive up voter interest,' said CNN's political analyst Bill Schneider.
Turnout did rise, but only slightly: a mere 51 percent of U.S. adults voted
in 2000.
"That was a far cry from the 63 percent turnout for the Kennedy-Nixon
race of 1960, which became the benchmark for evaluating participation in
subsequent elections. In every presidential election for the next twenty
years, turnout fell. It rose by 1 percentage point in 1984, but then
dropped 3 points in 1988. Analysts viewed the trend with alarm, but the
warning bells really sounded in 1996, when more Americans stayed home than
went to the polls on Election Day.
"The turnout trend in the midterm congressional elections has been no
less alarming. The voting rate was nearly 50 percent on average in the
1960s, barely stayed above 40 percent in the 1970s, and has averaged 37
percent since then. After a recent midterm vote the cartoonist Rigby showed
an election clerk eagerly asking a stray cat that had wandered into a
polling place, 'Are you registered?'
"Fewer voters are not the only sign that Americans are less
interested in political campaigns. Since 1960, participation has declined
in virtually every area of election activity, from the volunteers who work
on campaigns to the viewers who watch televised debates. Few today pay even
token tribute to presidential elections. In 1974, Congress established a
fund to underwrite candidates' campaigns, financed by a checkoff box on
personal income tax returns that allowed citizens to assign $1 (later
raised to $3) of their tax liability to the fund. Initially, one in three
taxpayers checked the box. By the late 1980s, only one in five marked it.
Now, only one in eight does so."
***
See
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375414061/newsscancom/ref=nos
im
for Thomas E. Patterson's "The Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an
Age of Uncertainty -- or look for it in your favorite library. [We donate
all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]
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