Wednesday, September 13, 2006
turnout
Secretary of State's website has a voter turnout breakdown by county. These are total voters per county, not broken down by party.
The State of Maricopa, Arizona's most populus county and the one with the most contested races, had the third-lowest turnout of all 15 Arizona counties (16.4%, ahead of Apache County's 14.8% and Navajo County's 14.5%). No wonder the wingnuts tend to reign supreme up there - they're apparently the only ones who actually exercise their civic duty. I kid; I know there are a great many progressive activists up there in Maricopa. It's those damn moderates who sit on their asses during the primary and don't pay attention to the actions of the officials their apathy helped elect.
Pima County was more or less toward the middle, with a whopping 24.6% turnout (Pima County Elections says voter turnout was 33.66% - not sure which is more current). I'm trying to figure out how the Pima County Recorder is figuring out turnout by party. If I'm reading this correctly (and who knows if I am), they're breaking it down not only by party but by district. I'm not sure what "Times Counted" means, but it's followed by a "Reg. Voters" stat, which I'm assuming is the number of qualified registered electors in that district and party primary race. It would be nice if F. Ann would publish some kind of key to all this.
Anyway, those turnout numbers are pretty abysmal if you asked me (which you didn't). Get out the vote has come to mean little more than "get out the base", which, I suppose, is the point of an election. It's such a shame though. Primaries are for everyone, not just those of us who love the red meat. I mean, I'm pretty damn partisan, but what pisses me off even more than the radical right-wing regressives highjacking the government is people not participating in democracy. The right to vote is really the most sacred of all our Constitutional rights. It's a cornerstone or representative democracy. Kind of necessary to the system actually working. I will never understand how anyone can claim to be too busy or disinterested.
All right, enough of my preaching to the choir for one night. I should try and get some shut-eye.
The State of Maricopa, Arizona's most populus county and the one with the most contested races, had the third-lowest turnout of all 15 Arizona counties (16.4%, ahead of Apache County's 14.8% and Navajo County's 14.5%). No wonder the wingnuts tend to reign supreme up there - they're apparently the only ones who actually exercise their civic duty. I kid; I know there are a great many progressive activists up there in Maricopa. It's those damn moderates who sit on their asses during the primary and don't pay attention to the actions of the officials their apathy helped elect.
Pima County was more or less toward the middle, with a whopping 24.6% turnout (Pima County Elections says voter turnout was 33.66% - not sure which is more current). I'm trying to figure out how the Pima County Recorder is figuring out turnout by party. If I'm reading this correctly (and who knows if I am), they're breaking it down not only by party but by district. I'm not sure what "Times Counted" means, but it's followed by a "Reg. Voters" stat, which I'm assuming is the number of qualified registered electors in that district and party primary race. It would be nice if F. Ann would publish some kind of key to all this.
Anyway, those turnout numbers are pretty abysmal if you asked me (which you didn't). Get out the vote has come to mean little more than "get out the base", which, I suppose, is the point of an election. It's such a shame though. Primaries are for everyone, not just those of us who love the red meat. I mean, I'm pretty damn partisan, but what pisses me off even more than the radical right-wing regressives highjacking the government is people not participating in democracy. The right to vote is really the most sacred of all our Constitutional rights. It's a cornerstone or representative democracy. Kind of necessary to the system actually working. I will never understand how anyone can claim to be too busy or disinterested.
All right, enough of my preaching to the choir for one night. I should try and get some shut-eye.
