Noah Millman offers an anecdote:
So my liberal Democrat mother-in-law gets to the polling place planning to vote for Hillary Clinton, and discovers that, unbeknownst to her, she has been a registered Republican for the last 40 years. New York being a closed primary state, she dutifully goes into a Republican booth. All she knows is that she can’t stand John McCain. So she votes for . . . Mike Huckabee, with whom she disagrees about pretty much absolutely everything.Puts those mysterious Florida Buchanan voters from 2000 into perspective.
To which a commenter replies:
Sorry, Florida voters are still the dumbest in the United States. Our local Supervisor of Elections received a flood of calls yesterday from people wondering where to vote. The Supervisor of Elections had to inform each caller that our primary was back in January, and that it was a good thing they didn’t get a chance to vote.
Thank God--one less vote for Hillary.
I also am for some reason registered a republican in NY (I put no party when I initially registered, and I am an independent). I went to vote yesterday and I told them I was confused and I wanted to vote for Obama. They handed me a Dem card instead of a Republican and I went and did it. They probably broke some electoral law, but hell, I got to vote for the person I actually support.
I don't think the Florida voters are that dumb. If you're not really into politics, you're probably not going to remember the date until you hear about it in the news; if you missed it when your state voted, when there's a big buzz being made about the state primaries, it's not unreasonable to think that's when you're supposed to go. So not so great on the paying attention to detail, but not stupid.
(Yes, I do say this as an otherwise intelligent person who is miserable with keeping track of dates...)
This is the first time in my memory that I had any influence over who the nominee would be.
Josh, They did break an election law. NY has a closed primary and only registered party members as of the deadline may vote.
Fraudulent voting? In NY? Who would have thought such a thing?
2.5 million Californians voted for proposition 91. In the "Argument For" section of the voter hanbook, the propositions two authors pleaded to voters not to vote yes on prop 91, as it had been made irrlelevant by subsequent legislation.
Cue Kent Brockman: "I've said it before and I'll say it again, democracy just doesn't work."
right on bush, wrong on obama. not that deep.
'2.5 million Californians voted for proposition 91. In the "Argument For" section of the voter hanbook, the propositions two authors pleaded to voters not to vote yes on prop 91, as it had been made irrlelevant by subsequent legislation. '
I would find an opportunity to be so contrarian nearly irresistable.
I would find an opportunity to be so contrarian nearly irresistable.
I personally know at least one voter who agreed with you and took it.
Surely "Efficient Market Theory" says something about this.
If Mr. Millman's mother-in-law found out she was a registered Republican for forty years, apparently until this year she never bothered voting in a primary.
A certain percentage of voters in every state are kind of dumb. Florida is the fourth most populated state. Ergo Florida is going to have the fourth-highest number of dumb voters so long as it's average. In addition a larger population means a greater chance of having someone who is dumb in a very rare or unusual way.
The three biggest states in population are California, Texas, and New York. Florida ranks below them on a "best educated index."
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_bes_edu_ind-education-best-educated-index
However of the four-biggest states Texas ranks the worst on completing high-school or equivalence.
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_per_of_peo_who_hav_com_hig_sch_inc_equ-completed-high-school-including-equivalency
I think they also didn't do that great on educated index. Although California also did bad in those two areas. So my guess would be that the state with the most dumb voters is either Texas or California. However as neither of those states are swing states as often as Florida is any stupid voters they have are of less interest.
What percentage of the "not completing high-school or equivalent" are citizens?
Millman's post was insinuating that the Buchanan votes might have been deliberate votes against another candidate. Voters with insufficient information chose Buchanan on purpose. The commenter interpreted this as stupidity rather than ignorance, when, in fact, there was a very solid explanation for how these Buchanan votes were made. They are reasonably ascribed to badly designed ballots intersecting with an aged population of visually impaired voters.
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