Now for the reality check. The combined Republican turnout was only 17.3 percent of eligible voters. The combined Democratic turnout was 11.7 percent. Those percentages should discourage you. Even when there are contested primaries where there is no incumbent, we can't get even get four out of five Americans to vote.
During the general election more Americans vote than in the primaries. In 2012, for example, 129.1 million Americans voted. That is 53.6 percent of the voting age population compared to fewer than 28 million who voted in the primaries. In other words, there were 100 million more Americans who voted in the general election that did not vote in the primaries.
That means we should be careful not to extrapolate from the primaries to the general election. Supporters of Donald Trump argue that he is turning out lots of people to vote for him, and that will assure his victory in November. Actually, many of the people who may vote for him or Hillary Clinton are not even voting in the primaries.
It is also worth mentioning that Donald Trump received about a third of the votes in the primaries. But that is one-third of the 17 percent who voted. In other words, he received less than 6 percent of eligible Republican voters. Once again, that is why it is hard to extrapolate from the primaries to the general election.
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Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service
Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Voter Turnout To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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