Why I Never Ask People to Vote
This Tuesday, November 6 th , is Election Day. Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote. [More on that later.] Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery. For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country? Why are Texas and West Virginia, two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters? If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote. Eighteen to 29-year-olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all. In the last election 2 million (!!!) minority voters who had voted for Obama twice did not bother to go to the polls for Clinton. Obama won Michigan in 2012 by 350,000 votes, Clinton lost by roughly 10,000 . In Detroit and Wayne Counties more than 75,000 Motown Obama voters simply stayed at home. If even 2% of those who stayed home had voted for Clinton, Michigan would have stayed blue. If