My state has the distinction of having had the lowest voter turnout in the primaries this spring: 20%. And yet, my hometown in Indiana is considered a bellwether city, having predicted the outcome of every presidential election except two since 1888. And they haven’t missed in 60 years. Clearly, Hoosiers do vote, just not so much in the primaries.
Statistically, college graduates are more likely to vote than the rest of the population. My husband and I both have post graduate degrees, but we don’t vote in the primaries, because in order to do so, you have to vote as a Republican or Democrat, and we are neither. For example: We strongly disagree with the Republican stance against Planned Parenthood. We disagree with Democrats on the idea of universal health care. Consequently, we tend to vote for a particular candidate who more closely represents our views, rather than the party he/she is affiliated with. We’ve voted for both Republican and Democratic candidates for years. And of course, we always voted for that Hoosier favorite, Evan Bayh, no matter what he was running for. There was a true gentleman and a scholar, and his leaving politics was understandable, but depressing.
Sometimes, if we don’t care for the candidates from either party, we choose the one we dislike the least.