In this week’s Mayor’s Message, Mayor Louis Manzo discusses problems surrounding voting.
In part two of “Being Heard and Making Your Vote Count,” I’ll discuss some of the problems. Last week, I began by breaking down the numbers, which are a root of the problem, and voter apathy, or low voter turnout, is the taproot. Low turnout allows for the possibility of a representative whose beliefs are not in concert with the majority of those he or she speaks for; and they will vote and govern in that manner for the next two, four or six years. The smaller the voter sample, the better the chance of this occurring.
There is a blatant example of this in the today’s headlines. I point to this case to illustrate the turnout problem, not to target or vilify the person, political party or philosophy they represent. I speak of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the 14th Congressional District in New York, representing Brooklyn and Queens. Focusing strictly on the numbers, this district has 712,000 residents, with 353,000 registered voters. This is a strong Democrat-leaning district, with 235,000 registered Democrats and only 36,000 registered Republicans. Suffice it to say that whoever is the Democrat nominee here, wins the seat in Congress — meaning the Democratic primary is really the election.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez won the 14th District Democrat Primary in 2018 with approximately 17,000 votes to her opponents 12,000. That’s a 12 percent turnout of registered Democrat voters and her primary vote tally only speaks for 7 percent of Democrats there. Worse yet, that’s less than 5 percent of all the voters she represents in that district. In her first two months in office, some of her policy initiatives and rhetoric seem to be out of the mainstream of those she speaks for. This has caused many from her own party to distance themselves from her. Regardless of your thoughts about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez or her philosophies, she was elected in a primary where 88 percent of her own party’s registered voters chose not to be heard. This is a problem.
Obviously, I cannot point to “problems” with voting and elections without mentioning money. I refer to the money spent on the political ads, which I also believe contributes to the voter apathy mentioned earlier. The good news is that we’ve found something that Democrats and Republicans can agree on: spending money on negative campaign ads is effective. On that front, neither party out-trumps the other (pun intended).
Every two years, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 or 34 Senate seats are on the ballot. The 2018 congressional mid-term election saw spending eclipse $5 billion (with a B!) for the first time ever. 85 percent of the ads were negative. There was a tremendous interest in this election, with voters on both sides of the aisle apparently geared-up to make a statement. So, not surprisingly, the voter turnout in 2018 was the highest for a mid-term election in more than 100 years. Drum roll please…49.3 percent of us voted. Seriously? More than half passed on one of the core privileges of our democracy — another problem. Next week, I’ll discuss potential solutions.
