Heads or Tails ~ VOTE

Little Bitty Baby Rant….believe me…this has been edited extensively from what I wrote last night… so I’ll just provide my own personal little non-partisan PSA on voting statistics…and (you’re-gonna-love-this) estimated cost requirements for this upcoming election.

I have three main points.

First
There is no reason the United States should be subjected to a presidential campaign which lasts almost two years. We are FINALLY one year away from the election. (twelve more months of this) I am already way past my tolerance level for partisan rhetoric and jockeying for media attention. By the time I actually get to vote…there is a chance it will be for the guy who annoyed me the least.

Second
(campaign fundraising data below ~ read at your own risk)
The length of campaign…especially with the number of candidates…results in an unbelievable amount of money being spent on NOTHING productive. Don’t get me wrong….I am a capitalist. I believe Bill Gates deserves every penny he has earned. But the billion dollars (yep a billion) spent on travel and propaganda production and commercial time is a WASTE. Now I realize a large percentage of this money is donated. Great. If the campaign was shorter…the costs would be less. These donors…people and corporations could do something else with all that money. They could donate it elsewhere…or they can keep it for themselves and earn interest….I don’t care. Think about it...$100 million per candidate thru the end of 2007 alone.

Third
Whenever anyone starts complaining about politics, politicians, or anything related to any law…I want to know if they vote. If they are registered and if they actually vote. If not…then THEY are the reason they have a problem. Period. If you complain and you don’t vote you are ….well…considering that is about a THIRD of you…I won’t say what I really think.

Interesting data to throw out at your office, cocktail party, or Thanksgiving table.
(from the November 2004 Presidential election via the Census Bureau…the data, reports, charts, and spreadsheets are broken down to the most minuscule detail of age, gender, state, ethnicity, et cetera ad nauseum. if you are a numbers geek...you'll love the links below)

total adults - - -215,694,000
citizens - - - - -197,006,000
non-citizens - - -18,688,000 (not eligible)

registered - - - -142,070,000 (72% of citizens)
non-registered - -54,936,000 (28% of citizens)
(almost a third of you are not even REGISTERED)

voted - - - - - - 125,736,000 (64% of citizens)
did not vote - - - 71,270,000 (36% of citizens)
(what do you want to bet this 36%
includes most of the complainers)

Definitions
adults – humans over 18 years of age living in the USA
citizens – of the United States of America
registered – those who have registered to vote
non-registered – CITIZENS who have NOT registered to vote
non citizens – adults living in the USA – that we know of
voted/not-voted – in the 2004 presidential election

Miscellaneous factoids
Among citizens, turnout was higher for women (65%) than for men (62%).

The turnout rate for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher (80%) was greater than the rate for people whose highest level of educational attainment was a high school diploma (56%)

Citizens age 65 and older had the highest registration rate (79%) while those age 18 to 24 had the lowest (58%). The youngest group also had the lowest voting rate (47%), while those age 45 and older had the highest turnout (70%)

turnout rates for citizens were:
67% for non-Hispanic whites
60% for blacks
47%percent for Hispanics (of any race)
44% for Asians
These rates were higher than the previous presidential election by 5 percentage points for non-Hispanic whites and 3 points for blacks. By contrast, the voting rates for Asian and Hispanic citizens did not change. These data pertain to those who identified themselves as being of a single race


Follow the Money….
(I'm quoting here - emphasis mine)

The reported cost of campaigning for President has increased significantly in recent years. One source reported that if the costs for both Democratic and Republican campaigns are added together (for the Presidential primary election, general election, and the political conventions) the costs have more than doubled in only eight years ($448.9 million in 1996, $649.5 million in 2000, and $1.01 billion in 2004).

In January 2007, Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner estimated that the 2008 race will be a "$1 billion election," and that to be "taken seriously," a candidate will need to raise at least $100 million by the end of 2007.

Can someone explain this to me?

If you want to know more here is the Census Report which includes all kinds of data for the past several presidential elections broken down into the finest details.

This link gives you dollar figures by candidate, party and quarter….raised, spent and debt amounts. And another...on some basic facts of the November 2008 election and comparisions to previous presidential elections.

Oh…by the way….Heads Or Tails is a weekly gig hosted by Barb over at at Skittles Place...this week is the subject of Voting.