GOP shatters its turnout record; Democrats lag behind

2/11/16 GOP shatters its turnout; Democrats lag behind

Link To Article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/10/gop-shatters-its-turnout-record-democrats-lag-behi/


Summary: This Tuesday, Republicans beat their voter turnout by a huge margin that rivaled that of the 2008 performance by the Democrats. Fueled by Trump and the other candidates, the number of voters reached around 285,000, just 2,000 short of the Democrats in 2008 and 15% higher than that of the 2012 primary. Democrats also performed well, with a showing of about 250,000 voters, but significantly lower than the Republicans. Combined, this turnout was a new overall record. Exit polls taken showed 15% of the voters said that it was their first time voting, and the majority of those voted for Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders. These results follow last weeks Iowa caucus turnout, in which the Republicans had 50% more voters vote than did the Democrats. It is worth mentioning, however, that the Democrats did very well for the fact that they had only two major candidates participate opposite the eleven major GOP candidates. “In Iowa our two candidates, along with Martin O’Malley, turned out 171,000 caucus-goers, compared to the ELEVEN Republican candidates — who ended up virtually in the same spot at 180,000,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Luis Miranda. The competitiveness of the candidates is most likely what is driving this extremely high turnout in the early primaries. There are more candidates on the Republican side which in turn, draws more voters. However, candidates like Donald Trump will have a harder time as the race gets deeper into the year. He relies mainly right now on uneducated, young voters who don’t end up showing up in big numbers to the elections. On another note, states later in the calendar see a big drop-off, as candidates have to spread their attention out, and don’t have money to invest in an intense turnout operation.

Class Connections: This topic relates to our class discussions because the article’s main focus is voter turnout. During our first unit, we talked about voter turnout and how it can affect the political elections. We discussed the pros and cons of high and low turnout, like when there is low turnout, the election process can unfairly favor a certain party and the basis of democracy is at stake because not everyone has their say in who is elected. 

My Opinion: I feel that it is somewhat discouraging, in my opinion, that the Republicans have had this high a voter turnout with the type of candidates that are running for President. People that have never voted before and who are uneducated shouldn’t be coming out voting for people like Donald Trump. He is not a good candidate for President. He has had no political experience in his career and he is a businessman, not a politician. He doesn’t even have set views on what he is going to do for this country. He talks about what he’s going to do like build a wall, and stop Muslims from entering the country. But he has no reasoning or basis behind these claims. Furthermore, I think the country should be more focused on the candidates that want to help improve our standard of living and what America is all about. I think the people should look to Bernie and Hillary for these things. The country should want to be more involved in these elections because this is a great chance for a great candidate to be elected that can meet the needs of the people.