WisPolitics Budget Blog

Tomorrow is Election Day in Wisconsin. Does anyone care? Does anyone know?

I have voted in every election since I turned 18 – every election, from special elections to recall elections, from Presidential primaries to gubernatorial primaries. I have voted for judges, clerks, sheriffs, casinos, new schools, Senators, even a coroner or two. Depending where my residence was at the time and the call of the election, I have voted in January, February, March, April, June, July, September, November, and December.

And on the eve of Election Day, I have yet to receive a single campaign message – not one TV ad, not one radio ad. I have received no mail, no telemarketing calls, no volunteers have knocked on my door. No door-hangers with cheesy candidate head-shots, no brochures printed in reflex blue have been left wedged between my doors.

And guess what – I am not alone. And guess again – the percentage of voter turnout will barely break into the teens tomorrow. County clerks say “high” turnout may reach into the low 20s.

Compare those numbers with the last Presidential election. As the propeller-heads in academia and the blow-hards on network TV derided the millions, if not a billion, dollars spent cumulatively among the political parties, the 527s, the candidate campaign committees and other legal entities, voter participation soared to record levels.

Money buys message that drives awareness that leads to participation.

Tomorrow is not a conclave of 117 Cardinals voting to elect the next Holy Father. I want TV ads telling me why a candidate deserves my vote. I want radio ads exposing the warts of their opponent. I want to make a judgment whether those TV and radio ads are fair.

Democracy is making decisions. I want a reason to vote.