Posted on 11/07/2009 7:32:09 PM PST by neverdem
Despite the shine of the national media spotlight, fewer north country residents voted in the 23rd Congressional District race this year than voted in either of the district's two previous contested campaigns.
About 48,074, or 34 percent of the 141,019 registered voters in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties cast their ballots for the congressional seat on Election Day. The turnout is lower than the 63 percent of voters that cast ballots in 2008 and 43 percent in 2006.
Turnout was higher last year, in part, because of the presidential election. In 2006, there was a gubernatorial race.
“Those percentages are certainly not atypical for what you’d expect in and off-year election,” said C. Fred Exoo, a professor of government at St. Lawrence University, of Tuesday’s results. “There may have been one or two things depressing turnout.”
Among those factors, Mr. Exoo said, was the negative advertising attacking all three candidates.
“There was a lot of negative advertising in this campaign, a lot more than the voters in this district are used to,” he said. “The trust in American politics is at pretty low levels right now and trust is correlated with voter turnout.”
A factor of that declining trust is the amount of money used by special interest groups to attack opposing candidates, Mr. Exoo said.
Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative Washington D.C.-based group, announced earlier this week that it spent $1,022,040 on Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.
“One of the reasons for declining trust is what people deem as the inappropriate influences of special interest money,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Dede (Scozzafava) voters just stayed home,” he said. “A lot of fat cat special interest money was used to beat her up.”
Local elections officials said that a 30 percent turnout for off-year elections was typical.
“A lot of turnout was driven by local issues,” said Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner. “Areas like the Cape (Vincent), Lyme and Henderson, those have local issues that impact everyone’s daily lives. You’re looking at 45 to 50 percent turnout in those areas.”
“The more localized you get, the more that people have a passionate connection to the issue,” said Sean M. Hennessey, Jefferson County Democratic elections commissioner. “Those local issues bump up the overall voter turnout.”
Voter turnout for Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties:
Well I hope those people with their arms folded and their noses in the air enjoy their zerocare.
Nothing would have prevented me from voting in this election. No wonder Nancy was smiling like the Cheshire cat on 11/4.
This apathy is going to get us hurt.
National talk radio hype for a local election is of little use.
Or someone did a crappy job with GOTV.
just like rats in an electric cage.
eventually the rat stopps stuggling and just accepts the pain.
or Steele pulled the plug in order to ensure the big party democrat won.
Enlighten the thread, Pete.
not much to add. there was no GOTV. And it was an odd-year election. Out in the small towns, there was often little awareness of the election.
Not everyone watches Fox cable.
It is tough to stay visible when you have 2000 votes coming out of an area larger than Rhode Island ... (Hamilton County).
There were relatively few volunteers working in the district. Even for the DEMS. Bill CLinton robo-calls seemed to be the primary DEM GOTV weapon. (Did the RNC run robo-calls for Hoffman?)
I haven’t studied the numbers yet. But if any of you had gone there expecting to see a reasonable effort by the Hoffman supporters, you would have been appalled at what you saw.
And, naturally, the GOP committee folks were doing nothing for Hoffman because he was not the GOP candidate. The County GOP Chair: we delivered 30 yard signs to him at noon on Monday, so that he could begin his operation.
I’ve looked for a composite number for the race but I can’t find one. By composite I mean final total by county election day and absentee. Do you know of any location that has that listed? I’ve looked on the Elections Board web site but don’t find it. The NY Times still list the total as being 97% and I don’t know if that is because they’ve quit updating or that is because the absentees haven’t been added. Thanks for any info.
Any possibility there was voter intimidation? Hey, that’s what the RATS would claim.
ABs: 10 days to count them .... Nov 13th.
I think no AB’s are in the totals yet.
Thanks. I read some where that they wouldn’t be opened until this coming Tuesday. Figures I’ve seen discussed were something approaching 11,000 requested and close to 6,000 returned.
Hard for people to grasp now, how key it was for us to win this district and CA-10. Both of the Dem winners voted for that Socialist hijacking of our healthcare system. Had we won them and kept Cao from voting for it, we’d have defeated that monster by 1 vote. Owens lied to the people of NY-23.
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