30 August, 2004

Political Circus

It occurred to me lately that the whole campaign process is directed at about 7% of the population. The rest of us are forced to listen to it. Where did I come up with the 7%; about 50% of the eligible voters are registered to vote. About 50% of registered voters vote in any given presidential election(less in state and local elections). So now we have 25% of the population electing our leaders. But probably 35% of the people had decided long ago that they were going to vote Democrat and 35% Republican regardless of who the candidates are. So that leaves about 30% of the voters(undecided and third party voters) that decide the election. So 30% of 25%(actual voters as percentage of eligible) is 7.5%.

Think about that, the whole campaign. Millions of dollars for TV, for travel, for the conventions to convince about 7% of the people to vote for them. Wonder how much that is per vote?

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