Safely Ignored

In about a week, Mis­souri will offi­cially cer­tify John McCain as their pre­si­den­tial can­di­date of choice, losing their bell and beco­ming just another wether.

The state’s shift toward con­ser­va­tism has been noted by many. Theo­ries abound about cau­ses, from pro­gres­sive drain (which I hadn’t yet con­tri­bu­ted to, I voted as a St. Loui­sian this last time) to racism to clo­ser socioe­co­no­mic align­ment with the South.

The rural vs. urban dicho­tomy per­for­med as expec­ted. The voter tur­nout dis­tri­bu­tion isn’t par­ti­cu­larly sur­pri­sing; mino­rity urban voters are known to turn out in lower num­bers. But after a cam­paign expec­ted to draw them to the polls, the “usual” dis­tri­bu­tion was a bit unexpected.

It was clear on elec­tion night that it would end up close, so when Marc Amin­der twee­ted about long lines I began to fear resource gerry­man­de­ring (which would be more subtle than redis­tric­ting). Most reports brought com­fort, though, that voters were patient.

But even if every voter in Velda City stood their ground, how many throughout the state gave up because their polling place was ill-​​equipped, or in a dan­ge­rous neigh­borhood? (When I voted in per­son, I left the rela­tive sanc­tuary of my yup­pie loft neigh­borhood for a disin­te­gra­ting old com­mu­nity cen­ter on an inti­mi­da­ting block of hou­sing pro­jects. I know neigh­bors who refu­sed to wan­der that direc­tion.) Or were any neophyte voters swa­yed by mis­lea­ding mes­sa­ges and rumors? Even I just about gave up on cas­ting my absen­tee ballot, con­si­de­ring how con­fu­sing the mes­sa­ges about nota­ri­za­tion were; the enve­lope, web site, and inc­lu­ded ins­truc­tions used com­ple­tely dif­fe­rent lan­guage and need­lessly sin­gled out first-​​time voters, felons, &c. (Fide­lity came through with con­ve­nient notary ser­vi­ces, but I doubt most voters are so fortunate.)

With a dif­fe­rence of only 3,903 votes of 2,925,205 cast, even subtle dis­sua­sions might have tip­ped the sca­les. If the Pre­si­den­tial elec­tion had been deci­ded by Missouri’s elec­to­ra­tes, the atten­tion to these con­cerns would be white-​​hot. As it stands, does anyone care?