REBUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT BOTH COURTING , "OCCASIONAL VOTER."

With politics taking the dirty turn as it usually does prior to an election has it caused a general lack of interest by eligible voters ? I mentioned this in The Sunday Commentary concerning the large number of voters who have little or no interest in politics until the final weeks before an election and that interest is even less during the Mid Term election because it does not involve a Presidential race. Statistically Mid Term elections have much less turn out than a Presidential election. Both the 1998 and the 2002 Mid term races had voter turn out in the mid 30% range of eligible voters while the 2004 Presidential race garnered percentages in the mid 50's. Mid Term elections also tend to be much more partisan and dirty since the candidate runs on state and local concerns and national concerns are secondary because of the lack of a Presidential candidate. This year seems to point to even less interest since both parties are aggressivly seeking the occasional voter who votes more on a whim than an decided plan to vote in advance. As I mentioned on Sunday unlike those of us who are political and news junkies and express our political activism through the blogoshpere or in general conversation with friends, co-workers etc. the average American is very uninterested in politics. Amazingly there is a large number who after the President and the Vice President do not know who the Speaker of the House is the Secretary of State or even their own United States Senators or House Representative. Those who follow politics and election cycles are either associated with and/or vote in accordance to party affiliation and if they consider themselves Independent vote in accordance to a conservative or liberal mind set or choose an Independent candidate. Which leaves a precious few voters who actually vote that have not already decided how they will cast their vote.

The Democrats believe that because of the dissappointment that the conservative base has with the Republican Party that it will cause many regular Republican voters to stay home on election day. This is a false assumption by the left and the scandalizing of this election will actually energize the conservative base rather than discourage. In the same respect the GOP fears the aggressive get out the vote campaigns that the Demcorats always spur to register voters. But in the past several elections the registration campaign by the Demcorats has proven to be unfruitful because while large numbers register only a small percentage actually go to the polls and vote on election day. So where does this leave the 2006 Mid Terms? The answer is that as usual the elections speculators who give very convincing arguments either direction really have no clue as to how the House or the Senate will turn out on November 7th. Recent past history shows that even when the pundints and the news media were claiming a back lash to incumbants by the voters after the election was over and the votes were counted 98% of all incumbants of both parties won re-election.

The true test of how the voter feels is not found in pre-election speculation nor in the exit polls because both are based on reaction by people who in the case of polls may not even vote and by numbers that can be manipulated by the pollster. The exit polls are a farce because they too can be manipulated as those who poll the voters after they have cast their vote can chose certain voters in accordance with how that type of voter usually votes. No the true test comes by the conscience of the voter when they enter the booth and look at the ballot without the news media breathing down their necks or the voice of a political pundint in their ear but only that voice that reminds each of us as free Americans that our vote counts and that in our Constitutional society we still are a , " nation of the people, by the people and for the people."

Ken Taylor