Doesn’t anyone take time to vote? 

By: Jim Brown

Remember the 1970 song by Chicago: “Does anybody really know what time it is, does anybody really care?” Louisiana held an election last week and only 17% of registered voters showed up. Only a handful of voters, both Republican and Democratic, bothered to cast a ballot for United States Senator, one of the most important offices in the nation. So why wasn’t there more interest? 

Louisiana has become a strong red state with major advantages for the Republican candidate. A number of Democratic-leaning voters feel going to the polls is just not worth the effort. “Why bother if my vote really won’t make any difference,” is the feeling of many more moderate-inclined voters. 

It’s much harder for candidates to get to voters today. It used to be that a voter had the choice of three TV stations, a few radio stations and one local newspaper. The internet has changed all this. From cable to web newspapers to information streaming, voters have so many new choices. And political media campaigns often get lost in the scuffle. It is simply much harder to get to the average voter without raising and spending more campaign dollars. 

“Retail politicking,”