In the news this week were stories of the drive to get out the single woman vote. Specifically highlighted was an organization dedicated to get out the single woman vote known as Women’s Voices. Women Vote.
Newsbusters does a good job of exposing the people who are behind this. The sponsors are basically left leaning activists. That’s fine enough except that they claim to be non-partisan. Their public service ads border on disgusting employing double-entendre such as, “Remember your first time?” in an attempt to connect with the MTV generation. They claim that 20 million single women did not vote in 2004. This doesn’t surprise me.
It makes me wonder, why don’t single women register to vote? The Census Bureau conducted a study on Voting and Registration in the 2004 Election. The part that stood out to me was the section examining why people don’t register to vote. Here are the main reasons for not voting:
REASONS FOR NOT REGISTERING Of the 32 million people whoreported that they were not registered to vote in 2004, 15 million(47 percent) reported that they were not interested in the electionor were not involved in politics (Table E).19 Another 6 million, or17 percent, reported that they did not meet the registration deadlines.Other reasons for not being registered included not being eligibleto vote (7 percent), permanent illness or disability (6 percent), andnot knowing where or how to register (5 percent). Four percent ofthe nonregistered population indicated their vote would notmake a difference and 4 percent reported they did not meet residency requirements
So you have 51% of people who didn’t register that are not interested or don’t believe their vote will count. That’s huge especially the 47% who don’t care. It’s important to note that this stat is not only women; it’s a sample of all non-registered voters.
So, WVWV it trying to reach 20 million unregistered women by appealing to what does interest them, in their opinion, sex. If approximately half aren’t interested, if we apply the Census bureau stat, then you bring their number down to 10 million. WVWV believe that the way to get out the vote and capture that 10 mil is to appeal to women’s hormones. What it doesn’t take into account are what are important differing attitudes on various subjects of the ‘don’t care’ crowd. If WVWV was to motivate all of the 10 mil then what? You’d have the same breakdown of a variety of positions on a variety of political issues that you have amongst registered active voters.
Another similar project was the Vote or Die, Diddy campaign in the 2004 election. That wasn’t just aimed at women; it was aimed at the MTV youth. So what happened to Vote or Die? It seems to be disbanded with promises of ‘re-thinking’ the business model of 2004. However Vote or Die did bring more young voters to the polls according to the Washington Post. For that to matter however, the WP would have to prove that the younger voters voted as a block and affected the election. I don’t find any evidence of that.
Given the ‘I don’t care’ attitude amongst non-registered voters, I don’t believe the WVWV will have an impact on the number of single women voters, and even if they do get out the vote, there is no historical example of a identified non-voting, then registering bloc, voting as a bloc.
This really is a flaw amongst left leaning get out the vote efforts. They are working on the models of the 1960s that motivated them to vote. Unfortunately for them, the unmarried voters, whether they are male or female, just don’t seem to care. It seems to me that their strategy is similar to trying to catch flies. The same dynamic that motivated them to vote doesn’t exist anymore because the voters that don’t care about voting are a negative to their base: their base is shrinking.
The repubs have a better get out the vote machine according to Time.
So, the Republicans do a better job of identifying issues and groups that are voting or who register and are voting for the first time.
I don’t think that the single woman who vote motivated by hormones will outweigh the newly registered issue or values voters amongst them.
As always CSGs should do their own investigating regarding their own vote. I don’t believe that WVWV takes into account the big picture in terms of how singles will vote once they get to the polls.
It should be interesting.
The bigger question for this CSG is what happens after the election?
My wild 2008 presidential election prediction is that HRC will turn pro-life via some alter call or whatever, before her run for the President.
God bless.
CSG
