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Author Topic: So who's going to vote?  (Read 3775 times)

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Offline Sal Atticum

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So who's going to vote?
« on: October 29, 2006, 10:12:14 PM »
So is everyone going to get out and vote next week?  I know I am (the absentee ballot is on its way :))


Quote
For Democrats, the focus shifts to turnout
By Brian Knowlton and Adam Nagourney International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON A Democratic leader predicted Sunday that his party was "on the edge" of capturing control of the Senate, and a new poll pointed in that direction, but it remained unclear whether Democrats had mobilized a sufficient get-out-the-vote effort to overcome a traditional Republican advantage in garnering voter turnout.
 
"I do think we're right on the edge," said Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who heads the midterm election campaign for Senate Democrats. He said Democratic candidates appeared to lead five critical races, to be even in two and to trail slightly in one. Democrats are given a greater chance of recapturing the House.
 
Schumer said a key Republican weakness was reflected in the fact that few party candidates mentioned President George W. Bush in their campaign ads.
 
"They're running away from him," he said on the Fox television network.
 
But while some Republican candidates have ducked appearances with Bush, the president received a raucously supportive reception Saturday in an appearance in Indiana, a predictably Republican state, and he plans a vigorous series of appearances from now until Election Day on Nov. 7.
 
Bush told supporters in Sellersburg, Indiana, that he planned a "sprint to the finish line" with rallies in Georgia, Texas, Nevada and Montana.
 
Republican strategists hope the president can re-energize the party's conservative base - somewhat discouraged over Iraq, deficit spending and other issues - with a dual promise to keep taxes low and, as Bush said Saturday, "to protect the American people."
 
Several ads from Republican candidates try to associate Democrats with higher taxes and declining security, but Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, said Sunday that his party had "no intention of raising taxes" on the middle class, though it might target, for example, oil companies that make huge profits.
 
The warnings of higher taxes, Dean said on CBS television, were "the scare tactics the Republicans always bring out," as were, he said, rumors that Democrats would seek to impeach Bush or the notion that a Democratic Congress would demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
 
"The president will still be in charge of foreign policy and the military," Dean said.
 
But Dean's Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, said Democrats would end the surveillance of terror suspects, remove the right to interrogate such suspects, end missile-defense plans and walk away from Iraq.
 
Most recent polls predict considerable Democratic gains, particularly in the House of Representatives.
 
Newsweek magazine reported Saturday that Bush's approval ratings had edged up steadily, from an all-time low of 33 percent three weeks ago to 37 percent. But, Newsweek said, "It may be too little, too late." If the elections were held today, it said, 53 percent of likely voters would support the Democratic candidate in their district, to 39 percent for the Republican candidate.
 
That is where the question of turnout enters the picture.
 
Democrats are pressing a sharply expanded campaign to get their voters to the polls, even as some party leaders expressed anxiety that Republicans would again out-organize them in the approximately 20 House and 3 Senate races that both sides agree will determine the outcome of the elections.
 
After two national elections in which the Republicans' sophisticated get-out- the-vote operation helped them triumph, Democrats have invested heavily in catching up, even as control of Congress appears to rest on a relatively few close races.
 
The Republicans' record on getting supporters to the polls is a primary reason the White House continues to express confidence that it can at least limit Democratic gains.
 
Dean said Friday that he was confident that a swell of enthusiasm among Democratic voters would push Democrats to victory, an assessment that even some Republican strategists said they shared. But in an interview, Dean said that Republicans continued to have a clear superiority in identifying voters they can persuade to vote for their candidates - and then getting them to do so.
 
"I don't think we are there yet," Dean said. "It's going to take some time," perhaps until 2008.
 
Other Democratic leaders expressed increasing confidence in their party's ability to achieve parity, and perhaps regain dominance, against the Republican get-out-the-vote machinery. Democrats are spending $35 million on turnout programs, nearly matching Republicans.
 
But Democratic Party leaders acknowledged structural shortcomings. Republicans have spent three years building a detailed national database of voters, including their voting history and consumer data; the Democrats' voter list is not as comprehensive, and their turnout operation is not as centralized.
 
The Newsweek poll also detected a slight trend that might comfort Republicans. A recent administration push to display both flexibility and determination in Iraq appeared to be gaining traction: 29 percent of Americans said they believed the United States was making progress in Iraq, up from 25 percent.
 
The issue remains among the most inflammatory facing American voters, even though most races traditionally are decided largely on local issues.
 
Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who was one of the earliest war critics in Congress, said on CBS that after a U.S. redeployment, Iraq would be "less chaotic." But Senator Elizabeth Dole of Kansas said on Fox that if the United States left too quickly, "the Middle East would be in flames."
 
Adam Nagourney of The New York Times contributed reporting.

Below:  Some of the problems people could potentially have voting this year (from the New York Times).
« Last Edit: October 30, 2006, 09:38:12 PM by mburtonk »
JUST EXTRA POLISH. I DO SOME WORK WITH EXCELL SO I KEEP THE CAPS LOCK ON :-P

Offline lynsey

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Re: So who's going to vote?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2006, 07:51:11 PM »
I'm voting...just not quite sure if I'm getting an absentee ballot or voting in Grand Forks. I'm disconnected from my home district now, yet I know there are issues in Grand Forks I don't have a stand on either.

Offline Red

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Re: So who's going to vote?
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2006, 12:08:12 AM »
Already voted.
100 percent of everything is attitude

Offline red hibiscus

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Re: So who's going to vote?
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2006, 04:02:40 PM »
voting is lovely...but the political ads on the radio are not.  i can't wait til tuesday just so they stop.

Offline roben.anderson

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Re: So who's going to vote?
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2006, 02:03:11 PM »
Yeah, I cant wait for the attack ads to stop, lol. I hate commercials anyways, and political ones are even worse. I'm going to vote, and I hope that everyone is going to. I personally would like to see a bit more blue around the country, but as long as people vote I dont care.

 

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