Why so few votes?

[LibertyBrews]

Pardon my ignorance, but about 4000 votes so far with 68% reported in a state with 1,3 million? That's really abysmal.

[Agora]

this sounds freaky to me : "John McCain worked to keep his vote above 20 percent, trailed by Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee."

aol.com

[subdefective]

Actually, we've been having record turnouts for the caucuses all over the state. The Maine caucus is incredibly confusing, and it's been difficult to find out how it all works. I'm not surprised that not more vote in the caucuses, especially since most of them lasted at least four hours (mine was 5 today). People are generally lazy, apathetic creatures - a caucus is a lot of work. We've had record turnouts, so it shows that people are finally putting in effort into this whole affair.

[RufusTDoofus]

I think that the turnout is higher than expected.

The Republican party is seriously in the minority in this State.

[RufusTDoofus]

The official campaign sent out an excellent email today urging people to participate in their local caucuses.

The thing that caught my attention in the email was this:

A half million Maine people vote in the general election, but only 3 or 4 thousand people statewide are expected to attend the Republican caucuses today.

So your vote has about 200 – 400 times the power that it usually does.

[bkreigh]

I also received something in the mail a couple days before the caucus telling me to get my ass to the caucus. Im guessing they received that info from the donations i have given.

It was pretty icy this morning so that might have kept some people home. The old folks had no problem getting out the vote though.

[LibertyBrews]

I think that the turnout is higher than expected.

The Republican party is seriously in the minority in this State.

Wow:eek:

[RufusTDoofus]

Only 28% of registered voters are Republicans. I think there are only 500k registered voters state wide which would mean there's 140k registered Rs. (I'm guessing. Don't take these numbers as gospel. I ran the website for one of the gubernatorial candidates in the last election and I'm going from memory.)

It is pretty sad that only 4,000 out of 140,000 choose to participate. The caucuses are the one ti when an individual really can have an impact but most people don't see it that way.

[josephadel_3]

Only 28% of registered voters are Republicans. I think there are only 500k registered voters state wide which would mean there's 140k registered Rs. (I'm guessing. Don't take these numbers as gospel. I ran the website for one of the gubernatorial candidates in the last election and I'm going from memory.)

It is pretty sad that only 4,000 out of 140,000 choose to participate. The caucuses are the one ti when an individual really can have an impact but most people don't see it that way.

993,748 total registered voters -- 31% Democratic, 28% Republican,
38% Independent/unenrolled, 3% Green

according to http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#ME