2010 Voter Turn-out Offers a Surprise to Many

Dr. Michael McDonald of the Department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University, has compiled some useful statistics from last autumn's election. The data show that turn-out amongst the entire voting-age population was just under 38%. This is a meager rate, to say the least. Thus, all these claims by pundits that "America" voted for this or "America" voted for that are pure hogwash. Clearly, some 62% of the voting-age population didn't vote at all. So, no conclusions whatever about the overall population can be drawn from the vote. It is clear a majority of those who voted were unhappy with the status quo. But even here results were more mixed than advertised, with several Democrats winning key Senate races.

Of course, there was a message of dissatisfaction which millions of Americans felt. But this can be attributed to dissatisfaction with the economy more than any high enthusiasm for right-wing Republicanism. After many months of melodrama brought to us by the Boehner-Cantor-Bachmann show, this has become obvious.