I’ll probably do a longer piece on GOP turnout tomorrow, but I just want to start a discussion on this:
Only 5 percent of eligible voters younger than 30 cast ballots on Super Tuesday, roughly splitting evenly among Romney, former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.), according to an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.
So far, only about 600,000 voters younger than 30 have cast ballots in all the Republican primaries, said Peter Levine, CIRCLE’s director. That’s fewer than half the number who voted for then-candidate Obama prior to Super Tuesday in 2008, although it’s an imperfect comparison because more primaries in 2008 were before Super Tuesday.
But the difference is so large that it points to a big potential weakness, Levine said.
And don’t miss this:
White and gray.
That’s the clear pattern for turnout in the Republican presidential race over its first two months.
After Super Tuesday, exit polls have now been conducted in 14 states from all regions of the country. In all 14 of those states, white voters, and voters over 50, both comprised a significantly larger share of the electorate in this year’s GOP primary than they did in the 2008 general election. In many cases, the gap on each front has been enormous.
You will be flabbergasted by the numbers in that article. It’s like the Republican Party has been left on an ice floe to die.
Although all the new voter ID laws passed by Republican state legislatures will make it more difficult for minorities and young people to vote, it will also impact the elderly voters. I wonder if the GOP thought this through? Nothing like “cutting off the nose to spite the face.”
“thinking things through” is not a strong point with the repugnitards.
As for the “left on an ice floe” thing, too bad about all that global warming, eh? Karma!
The lefty blogosphere should start gloating about how the voter ID laws keep GOP elderly from voting. If they rush to repeal the Voting ID laws, it’s an issue for them. If not, they are counting on differential application of the law to offset this: “I know Mrs. Smith; she’s been voting here since 1962. And Rev. Jones brought her and a busload of other elders to the polls.”
In a lot of precincts there will be no Democratic pollwatchers on hand to issue a challenge or the Democratic pollworker will not want to anger Mrs. Smith.
Only if the damage extends downticket.
Looking more and more like Whigs
MSNBC’s tally showed that in Ohio Obama got over 500,000 votes putting his support higher than Romney’s. That’s a whole lotta loyalty for an uncontested incumbent.
yeah, but that is a little mischievous. There were contested primaries in Ohio. For example, Dennis Kucinich and Mary Jo Kilroy lost. Dems turned out to vote in their primaries and checked the box for Barack. It’s not like they went to the polls for no other reason than to support the president as MSNBC would have you believe.
And of course he’s running without any serious opposition to split the vote.
that article was good, BooMan. thanks for the link
“It’s like the Republican Party has been left on an ice floe to die”
…Lets all hope so. Perhaps a couple harpoons to the survivors.