So, just how low was the turnout in yesterday’s Dem primary?
Consider this. In my home precinct, these were the results in the Governor’s race:
Terry McAuliffe – 64
Creigh Deeds – 55
Brian Moran – 52
That is a total of 171 votes combined.
In the House of Delegates primary for the 52nd Dist., this is how it broke out in my precinct:
Luke Torian – 133
Mike Hodge – 36
This past May 25th, in our HOA annual elections, I received 173 votes. That’s right. I got 2 more votes than all three Dem candidates for Governor combined and 4 more than the two vying for delegate. And there are even a few additional streets in my home precinct that aren’t part of our HOA, so they had a bigger pool to draw from. Not to mention that our HOA elections restrict voting to one vote per household, so I had an even smaller voter base to pull from in that sense as well.
When Democrats’ primary turnout for Governor and Delegate is lower than for an HOA election, you know there is an enthusiasm gap.
Filed under: 2009 Elections, Democrats, Virginia Politics
Apropos voter turnout -
It happened that I was in Europe last week when the election for representatives for the EU board were elected. In the small country I visited, 43.8% of registered voters voted!
Yeah it was low, but they still had many multiples of voters choosing their candidate than we did with our insular convention.
From this morning’s Virginian-Pilot:
“Turnout for the primary eclipsed 6 percent, a greater participation rate than in the 2005 Republican gubernatorial primary or the 2006 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.”
Sorry, Riley. That dog won’t hunt.
Ooh. 6 percent. That means 94 percent DIDN’T care.
The 2005 Gov. primary for the GOP had Kilgore vs. Fitch and most people didn’t even know Fitch was running.
The 2006 Sen. primary had two nobodies running against someone who at the time was viewed as a shoe-in for reelection.
Bad examples to site.
You live in a HOA neighborhood? Sucks to be you.
Actually, it doesn’t. I’m President and we’ve got a great board. We’re not in-your-face gov’t nannystate types, either. We keep our fees low and deliver as many services as possible. We actually operate it more like a private sector government, so it is efficient rather than wasteful.
OK, then. Since 2005 and 2006 are out, would you point me to a recent statewide Virginia primary that had a higher turnout?
It’s a pretty darn sad situation when people don’t care. – 6%!
Sic(k)Semper Tyrannus
FYI – Living in a neighborhood with a good HOA does not suck. On the contrary -