Last December, I posted about the theory of the two electorates.
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/jerry_skurnik/the_theory_of_the_two_electorates.html
A quick summary of the theory is that a small minority of voters know a lot about issues and politics but that the vast majority of voters know very little about the subject until right before they vote.
The day after Super Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s website – Best of the Web produced some anecdotal evidence of my theory – people who cared enough to make the effort to vote but are not informed enough to know what day their state was holding its Primary.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/
Just Another Tuesday
All the Super Tuesday hype left would-be voters in several states confused:
- Milwaukee's WTMJ-AM quotes Ethel Goodwin, who arose early yesterday and tuned in to the station: "We were listening to the news and they were saying that Super Tuesday, and all the state, I figured that included Wisconsin," she said. When she showed up at her local polling place, "there were about six to 10 other people standing outside waiting to go in, also, at 6:30 [a.m.]." Wisconsin's primary actually is Feb. 19.
- In Virginia, the Associated Press reports, "more than 700 callers swamped the State Board of Elections offices, most of them demanding to know why their polling places were closed." That would be because Virginia votes next week.
- In Dallas, "the county elections office has received close to 1,000 phone calls from people asking where to vote," reports the Dallas Morning News. "San Antonio officials reported similar calls." Texas votes on March 4.
- The election supervisor in Palm Beach County, Fla., received more than 100 calls Monday and Tuesday from people seeking to vote, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Officials in Orange County, Fla., say they heard from people trying to reach Orange County, Calif., where they actually did vote yesterday. Janet Olin, assistant elections supervisor of Leon County, Fla., says she's gotten her share of calls too. "It's funny that they want to argue with us about it," says Olin. "We absolutely have had more than a handful, and they are a handful." Floridians will have to wait until at least 2012 to vote in a presidential primary, since they missed their chance last week.