Glenden BrownThis may be the longest weekend ever
No seriously. Waiting for Christmas has nothing on waiting for election day 2008.
MSNBC reported this a.m. that 188 million people are registered to vote. Given that turnout in US elections is consistently among the lowest in the industrialized world, this is a good sign. Early voting has seen HUGE turnout. 538 reported this morning:
PPP estimates that nearly two-thirds of Coloradans have already cast their ballots, as have 55-60 percent of New Mexicans, with large majorities of those votes going to Barack Obama. This is backed up to some extent by Michael McDonald’s turnout statistics. In Colorado, the state had already processed approximately 1.3 million ballots as of Thursday, around 60 percent of the total 2004 turnout. In Bernalillo County (Albuquerque), New Mexico (statewide figures are not available), 145,000 ballots had been cast as of Wednesday, equaling 55 percent of 2004’s total.
Early voting in Utah is not quite as large but turnout already has been in the hundreds of thousands. As a measure of voter enthusiasm, early voting is a good sign and Democratic voters are turning out in huge numbers. This election has garnered huge attention for over a year now. People are engaged and excited.
However, I mean this seriously, I don’t get undecided voters. The candidates are not interchangeable. Their views and policy positions are radically different. So what exactly are undecided voters waiting for before they make up their minds?