[Foundation-l] 2011 elections - low turnout

[Ray Saintonge]

That pretty well sums it up! The US elections are a good example because 
of the amount of data available, but the pattern of low turnout repeats 
itself in many other circumstances.  People tend to vote more when they 
are angry about something, but creating a crisis just to get people out 
to vote would be too much like trolling. Any reasonable expansion of the 
voter base is unlikely to accomplish much beyond correcting a few 
inequities, The problem has less to do with those who can't vote, and 
more with those who won't.

Ec

On 03/21/11 7:21 AM, brock.weller at gmail.com wrote:
> It's a chicken and egg thing. The elections arent important so they dont
> know about the candidates and they dont know about the candidates because
> the elections not important.
> -Brock
>
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Thomas Dalton<thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:
>> On 21 March 2011 09:49, Ray Saintonge<saintonge at telus.net>  wrote:
>>> Even in US elections the turnout is much lower for the mid-terms.  It's
>>> relatively easy to decide on a presidential candidate, but the degree of
>>> being informed drops significantly for offices further down the
>>> political food chain.
>> I would have thought turnout was lower because people think they
>> aren't as important as the presidential elections, rather than because
>> they don't know which way to vote.