Likely Voters
But Distracted from Voting
By Daniel Muniz

It was a busy Saturday afternoon and I had lots of errands to run. And as any parent knows, having little children also adds to the “things to do” list. The day was finally winding down when I got home and flicked on the idiot box to relax and do some channel surfing. As I was flipping the channels, one of the local television stations began displaying the numbers from the first batch of election results. I growled at the television set because I completely forgot to vote. And I could really kick myself because I felt that this local election was important.

But there was more to it than that.

Even if the issues were inconsequential, I still wanted my voice heard even if it was just a municipal election. I am the kind of person who votes on everything, or at least I try to. However, this wasn’t the first time that I missed exercising my right to vote although the circumstances were very much different.

Being married with very young children and having a house as well as having a whole slew of responsibilities became information overload. There was just a lot of stuff to do.

When I was younger, single, and living alone in an apartment, I had no responsibilities and there was no one else I was accountable to except to myself. In that situation, there was no excuse other than apathy. At least that is what I thought but there were times then that I missed my chance to vote and apathy had nothing to do with it.

On one occasion, it was Election Day and I was getting ready to leave my apartment so I could vote. The phone rang. A good friend of mine that had moved to another city had called and since we rarely visit with each other, I ended up talking to him for about an hour. As I got off the phone, I looked at the time and noticed that I was running late. I drove as fast as I could and as I entered the polling station where I usually voted, the poll workers told me that they were packing everything up and that I had missed my chance to cast a ballot.

I was single with few responsibilities but I felt that I could kick myself because the distraction of talking on the phone was no excuse to forgo voting. But this last time, I still felt that I could kick myself again because even though I was overloaded with responsibilities, I still should have found a way, especially since early voting is available.

As someone who has actually worked on a number of political campaigns, voter apathy was an issue that often came up when strategies were planned. Although apathy is the bane of politicians, I no longer look at it in the same light that I once did. Registered voters and likely and voters can be distracted in so many ways that them not voting doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t care about the issues and the candidates. Everyday life is complex and there are so many things distractions that can be as detrimental as apathy.

I don’t want to discount voter apathy because there is plenty of it. There are plenty of people who really don’t care about the issues because our modern civilization works just fine without their participation. And there are also people who are passionate about the issues but they never vote and they aren’t even registered to vote. They just like to complain about things but they don’t want to be a part of the process.

And finally, there are people who want absolutely nothing to do with the process at all. Some see government as just being one big conspiracy.

Apathy does play a big role in why many people don’t vote but distraction can also be a big factor.

I will admit that there was one time long time ago that I did commit a tragic error. In a congressional campaign that I was deeply involved in, I devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to it. I never got the chance to go to early voting because most of my free time was consumed with the campaign. On Election Day I was at an elementary school that was the site that covered several very important precincts. It was a critical voter rich voting station and I was the only one there handing out literature and talking to undecided voters.

As the day wore on, it occurred to me about how I was going to cast a ballot myself.

Since I didn’t go to early voting, I had to go to where my precinct was at to vote. But I couldn’t leave the voting station I was already at because there was a steady stream of voters still coming in. So in the end, I didn’t vote for the candidate that I worked so hard for even though I was registered in his district.

Several months afterwards, I was going through a number of campaign books and almost each one of them specifically mentioned the exact same problem of a campaign’s volunteers not voting for their own candidate because of being committed somewhere else on Election Day. That time I felt really stupid.

In the past, I detested apathy and I had no sympathy for the apathetic citizens because if you don’t vote, then you cannot complain. However, distracted voters are another story and they cannot be lumped in with the people who don’t care. But in all reality, a distracted voter has the same effect of an apathetic voter because a ballot was not cast and that is what really matters when it comes to an election.

Overall, distracted voters represent a vast reservoir of likely voters who can make or break an election race and they need to be harnessed by the candidates. But getting them to the ballot box is a problem in of itself.

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