Author predicts elections will have strong turnout

Dismal voting trends will likely change this year, the author said.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Economic issues, the war in Iraq and President Bush's ability to draw both strong admirers and intense detractors are likely to produce a strong turnout for next month's national elections.
A Harvard University professor and author of a book chronicling voting trends offered that observation during a discussion Tuesday at Youngstown State University.
Thomas Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, is visiting YSU because his work, "The Vanishing Voter," was selected as this year's Freshman Readers Dialogue book.
First-year YSU students have been studying and discussing the book as part of class projects that are included in the dialogue program, now in its third year.
Patterson met with several students Tuesday to talk about his work.
Lower turnout
"The Vanishing Voter" notes that voter turnout in national, state and local elections has ebbed in past years.
Turnout in the last presidential election was just more than 50 percent, compared with the nearly 65 percent that was once achieved.
Voting has dipped among all age groups, but especially the young.
The increasing use of attack ads is one reason people are shunning the polls, Patterson argues.
But the dismal voting trends of the past probably will change this year.
"I think the voters are going to come back," Patterson said.
In a post-Sept. 11 world, Americans are particularly concerned with the country's future and the need to affect it, and that will show at the polls, he contended.
The war in Iraq is sparking interest in the election among voters in their early 20s.
"Wars are fought by young people," a fact that draws attention and concern among that age group, Patterson said.
Looking ahead
While voter participation probably will be high this year, the question is, will it continue?
Should Bush be re-elected, it likely will, simply because he will continue to be a lightning-rod politician who draws supporters and detractors to the polls, Patterson maintained.
His talk also included discussion about why voter interest had been slipping before this year.
Besides the surging use of attack ads, Patterson also attributed it to the press.
Journalists spend too much time detailing meaningless political scandals and not enough on issues that matter, Patterson said.
Reporters' instinct to be governmental watchdogs has gone awry.
"The press has overdone it," Patterson said.