Just got back from working the polls for our local election. Out of 15 hours (from prep to cleanup), it feels like 13 of those were on my feet. Urgh. Some anecdotal observations from southwestern PA:
- Turnout was about 26%. Not great, but not particularly un-spetacular, either. It was more or less what is expected for a local election.
- Democrats were generally winning, with most (minor) races falling into a 55%-45% margin.
- Which is a bit surprising, in that the precinct registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 4:1, as far as I can tell.
- Given that we had the same number of straight-ticket voters for the Democrats and Republicans, and that the races weren't obviously horrible blowouts in favor of the Democrats, I'm going to guess that Republicans were more motivated than Democrats, and so more likely to vote.
- An alternative explanation is that, for some unfathomable reason, a lot of Democrats decided that they were going to vote Republican.
- There were a number of folks who asked for help with a comment along the lines of "I don't care about (some random race)
, they told me who to vote for." This was always the older voters. - Speaking of which, the average age of voters was... uhm. In the 60+ area, I'd guess. The ratio of retired to otherwise was very high, and the number of obviously under 30 voters was very, very low. We had a sum total of two (2) children accompanying parents today.
The last lead me to some interesting thinking. What was the age of radical liberalism in the US? Right - the 1960's. So say you're 20 years old in the mid-1960s, and those years have left their mark on you. You're a liberal, by George, and - while you may have some qualms about who you've been asked to vote for, here and there - you know, deep down, that "liberal" means "Democrat".
Fast forward to 2011. You were 20 in 1966, so now you're... wait, what?
Seventy five.
Those old people who were willing to vote for whoever "they" told them to vote for? They're the children of the 60s. Flower power, all we are saying is give peace a chance, hey hey ho ho, western civ has got to go.
Yeah... they're old now.
And by old, I mean dying.
Which brings me to OWS.
I'm starting to look at OWS and wonder if it's real purpose is to help raise up another generation of voters who were convinced that "compassionate == liberal == Democrat". If they can mobilize some voters, or get some safe issues into the headlines, fine... but the real motivation is to re-create enough of the basic elements of 1960s counter-culture to grow a new generation of hardcore Democratic voters, since the old crop is starting to get a bit manky, if you know what I mean.
All right, enough random thoughts. Time to relax.
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