Battleground "Ad" Nauseum
| Sun Dec. 7, 2008 8:34 AM PST
Despite the fact that as a presidential candidate Barack Obama ran several national ad buys that brought campaign advertising to California, Utah, and a number of other states that hadn't experienced the excitement/overkill of campaign season in quite a while, battleground states still dominated ad purchases. According to Fair Vote:
Percent of all presidential campaign related television ads that took place in [Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvani and Vriginia] from September 24 to November 4 – 54.5%
The campaign was consolidated in other ways as well:
Percent of all 300 campaign events by major party presidential candidates between September 5 and November 4, 2008 that took place in the states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia – 57%
Number of states where 99% of all campaign visits and 99% of all campaign spending took place: 16
And the effect of this? Just over 10 percent in voter turnout.
Voter turnout in the 15 states with the most campaign activity: 69%. Voter turnout in the remaining states: 56%
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Comments
Submitted by Eric Ferguson (not verified) on Mon Dec. 8, 2008 7:55 AM PST.
Maybe the single biggest depressor of turnout is the electoral college. The fact is most presidential votes don't matter, even though many voters vote for president and nothing else. No wonder turnout is lower where the presidency isn't being decided. Regardless of the theories about how the electoral college helps/hurts big states/small states, the fact is just a few states get to decide.
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