Well over 5 million Illinois voters participated in the 2012 election while only 2 million voted in the Democratic primary and just over 1.4 million voted the Repub primary yesterday
Nationally about 55% of registered voters cast a ballot in the 2012 election whicn is average for elections held since 1900. When less than 70$ of registered voters who vote in a presidential election bother to vote in a primary, you see candidates win nominations with very small numbers of votes.

If 5M voters correlates to 55% of the electorate than 3.4M is only 38%. That level of voter turnout makes it possible for fringe candidates to win.

(03-16-2016 03:06 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Well over 5 million Illinois voters participated in the 2012 election while only 2 million voted in the Democratic primary and just over 1.4 million voted the Repub primary yesterday
Nationally about 55% of registered voters cast a ballot in the 2012 election whicn is average for elections held since 1900. When less than 70$ of registered voters who vote in a presidential election bother to vote in a primary, you see candidates win nominations with very small numbers of votes.

If 5M voters correlates to 55% of the electorate than 3.4M is only 38%. That level of voter turnout makes it possible for fringe candidates to win.

Given how little the typical American knows about politics, I find it reassuring that he stays away from the polls. I do not pay much attention to the NBA. Do you think basketball fans are disappointed that I do not fill out a ballot for the NBA all-star game?