Monday, November 12, 2012

The Aftermath of Low Information Voters

The problem with a general presidential election is that tens of thousands of residents voting on federal or state offices and propositions don’t care about local issues or who’s running for City Council and school board. The results are often unfortunate.

Santa Monica Patch interviewed local voters who admitted that local races were of no interest. One voter said he went, ”eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” Others were “overwhelmed by the volume of political pamphlets stuffed into their mailboxes — like from Bill Bloomfield?

With no clear-cut basis to chose candidates, many voters take the easy way out. Vote for nice sounding names, women, along party lines, pro-environment or use a list they’ve been given.

-- Bill Bauer, Santa Monica Daily Press

The curse of the "Low Information" voter reigns supreme.

I suppose this is the result of assuming that a greater number of people would be just as involved in a campaign as I was. Such myopia is understandable for someone who got heavily involved in a campaign for the first time.

Bloomfield blanketed the election field with flyers galore. During the campaign calling, a number of undecided voters begged his staff to stop sending those flyers. No matter how much money a candidate spends on getting elected, there is only so much information that a prospective voter will take in.

Money can buy more space in a forum, but it will not sway the swing voters with fundamental concerns like the candidate's true colors or specific proposals for this country's problems offered.

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