Who's Gonna Vote?

We’ve all seen the polls and the maps and the predictions (my compliments to Zach’s prediction) but we seem to be forgetting that it all comes down to who actually shows up to vote on election day. Obama’s supporters may see so many polls predicting an Obama victory that many of them don’t vote, while McCain’s supporters may assume that Obama’s young voters won’t actually go out and vote and, therefore, won’t feel the need to vote themselves. An article by John Whitesides entitled “The Last Unknown in White House Race -- Who Votes?” discusses how important it is to each candidate that all of their supporters vote. This holds especially true for Obama, who has a large base of “new and sporadic voters;” these voters Obama are relying on may not show up to vote. Obama officials, however, remain confident, citing the results of early voting: “43 percent of Democrats who voted early [in Nevada] are new or sporadic voters, and 19 percent of the Democrats who voted early in North Carolina have never voted in a presidential election before” according to Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. McCain officials, however, are not concerned, citing that Republican candidates often do poorly among early voters but receive a large number of absentee votes. Both campaigns are implementing massive get-out-the-vote drives: Obama’s campaign is relying upon “’several million’ volunteers” to talk to every last possible Obama supporter while McCain has utilized a “72-hour voter turnout plan [similar to one] that paid huge dividends for Bush in 2004.” It’s cliché and has been said countless times before, but in this election, every vote really does count.

For an election that is supposedly “winding down” though, there certainly seems to be a lot of last-minute activity!