Re: election question

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/4/06, ravi <ravi.bulk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> At around 4/11/06 6:40 pm, Michael Perelman wrote:
> > It seems that whenever I see polls predicting a slight Democratic
> > victory, it never happens.  When was the last election surprise where
> > the polls understated Democratic chances?  Are people ashamed to tell
> > polsters that they support the right?
> >
>
> Could it be true that democrat voter turnout is lower since they are
> over-represented in the working class, who have a higher probability of
> not being able to make it to the booth on election day due to any of a
> bunch of reasons (child sick, work issues, car broke down, etc)?

Many governments make election days national holidays.  The US
government doesn't.  That alone automatically suppresses working-class
turnout, and so does the trouble of voter registration, which is left
to individuals rather than to governments in the USA.

Esther Cervantes and Amy Gluckman wrote: "the GSS [General Social
Survey] data suggest that there is typically a 25 to 30
percentage-point gap in participation between the lowest and highest
income quintiles" ("Who Votes, and How?" January/February 2004,
<http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2004/0104cervantes.html>).

It must be noted that the Democratic Party has not made efforts to
raise working-class participation significantly.
--
Yoshie
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