There’s a lot of discussion of the election results in Ferguson, Missouri last night, and many are expressing disappointment that voter turnout was only around thirty percent. But we have to put things in perspective:
Voter turnout increased substantially from the previous election following a strong get-out-the-vote effort from labor unions and other national organizations. The town that drew only 12.3 percent of registered voters last April had 29.4 percent turnout Tuesday, according to the St. Louis County Board of Elections. That was about double the overall turnout in St. Louis County, where Ferguson is located.
When it comes to turning out the vote, you don’t expect miracles. Ferguson well more than doubled its turnout from a year ago despite “brutal storms” that included lightning and heavy rain. More significantly, it roughly doubled the turnout of St. Louis County as a whole, and it did this despite underperforming the country as a whole in the past.
If we’re judging the impact of a get out the vote effort, this was a big success. I’m not sure we can say the same about the voter registration drive, however.
A strong push was made after the shooting [of Michael Brown] to register more black voters last year, but just 562 new voters were added to the rolls. In recent weeks, the focus has been on getting those who are registered to vote.
There are a lot more voters to register in Ferguson, and there are still a lot of registered voters who did not turn out yesterday despite all the media attention and hype around the election. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but the city council now has two more black members and the community can see first hand that political engagement can make a difference.
The “community organizers” done good.
Voter turnout was much better in Ferguson. This though points out the need for mandatory voter registration and voting.
Also all voting days should be holidays.
If one wants to live in the USA voting should be one of the highest priorities of a US citizen.
I have heard all the excuses used by others not to vote. There is one fact that they can not argue with. If one chooses not to vote then you have willingly give up a right that numerous others have died for. Think about it.
We need to have a law standardizing that all elections happen on an even-numbered year in November unless it’s a special election. Ferguson’s elections are in April in odd-numbered years. There is just no reason for that except to depress voter turnout.
Sounds like they did great! Kudos to the people who put in the hard work.