Almost No One Voted in New Jersey - turnout will be well under 10% of registered voters

[kpete]

Almost No One Voted in New Jersey

Daily Beast: "Barring a miracle where tens of thousands of votes appear out of the ether (and in New Jersey that can't be entirely ruled out), turnout will be well under 10% of registered voters in a statewide race that received national media attention."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/14/cory-booker-wins-but-almost-no-one-votes.html
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/08/14/almost_no_one_voted_in_new_jersey.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Well,

Democracy belongs to those who show up.

[MineralMan]

2. The takeaway from this should be a recognition

that voting in primaries is an opportunity. Since turnouts are so low, an intense GOTV effort on the part of any group can affect the results. We should all keep that in mind for 2014. Primary elections are the time when we actually choose who will represent our interests in the general election.

If we're really interested in electing progressives to positions in local, state, and national elections, it is the primary process where we can get that done. By November, it's way too late to make an impact.

GOTV 2014! Primaries, too!

[riqster]

3. ^^^THIS^^^

GOTFV!

[LiberalEsto]

4. They should have set up extra polling places at the Jersey Shore

Where else would NJ people be at this time of year?

[BillStein]

5. wasn't that the whole idea?

I thought the only reason NJ had to pay a small fortune for special elections was so christie could win big in November

[Bluenorthwest]

6. So Booker is not the big draw some claim he is.

What if voters were offered good candidates instead of carefully built constructs?
They would show up and vote. No one will bother much for a simulacrum of a Democrat disguising a Wall Street gopher.

[JHB]

8. Catch 22: when you don't show up, you don't get someone you want

We had Rush Holt, but he only got 17% of those who showed up.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Yesterday I worked the polls in two districts of a moderate suburban NJ town of 20,000.

If we got 200 voters, it's probably an overestimation.

Dead, dead, dead.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Should have been even easier to get a non-Booker candidate in, then

No danger of GOP victory in the general.

Democratic state, mostly (no GOP senator since the 80's).

Closed primary with only Dem voters.

And even low turnout, presumably undermining Booker's funding and organizational advantages.

Even with all that at play, the left can't pull a victory.

Why can't the left win in even those favorable conditions? How did the "center right" "corporatist" candidate win even in those conditions? And if the left can't even win in these ludicrously favorable circumstances - can't, indeed, even come close to winning - why should we believe the left can field candidates in actual competitive races?

[tabbycat31]

11. New Jersey usually does not have competitive primaries

As a field staffer (who looks at previous voter turnout for fun), this race would have been a nightmare to be on (and I say this as New Jersey resident and voter).

Usually NJ decides who gets "the county line' at conventions where the candidate runs with the slogan X county Democrats or X county Republicans. In my county, the candidates who do not get the line usually drop out at the convention. Occasionally a candidate can win off the line, but it takes special circumstances (a teabagger did in 2010 but only after a recount). The only time it can get interesting is when a district has more than one county and they don't agree on who gets the line.

Because most of our primaries have everyone running unopposed, turnout is naturally low and usually is limited to political activists. I vote in every primary, but most people would not bother if everyone is running unopposed. So when you're creating canvass and call universes, the primary voters are a limited group.

FTR I voted for Frank Pallone in the primary, but will vote for Booker in the general. Steve Lonegan is batshit crazy.