From: clarinews@clarinet.com
Newsgroups: clari.news.politics,biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.top
Followup-to: biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Democratic turnout down 18.4 percent
Keywords: politics
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 13:00:55 PDT
ACategory: washington
Slugword: turnout
Priority: major
Format: regular
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Codes: ynp.rxx.

	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Democratic turnout at primaries so far this
election season is down 18.4 percent with the biggest drop in Southern
states, a study revealed Monday.
	Republican turnout was down 4.1 percent, but even there a high
percentage of people showing up at the polls were doing so to register
their protest, the survey said.
	The study of primary states that held comparable elections in 1988
was conducted by The Commitee for the Study of the American Electorate,
a non-profit, non-partisan research group that regularly studies
election year voting patterns.
	``We have a very unhappy electorate,'' said Curtis Gans, director of
the group. ``But we have very different dramas being played out in the
different parties.''
	``In the Republican Party, despite the virtual certainty of President
Bush's renomination and the lack of a credibly presidential political
opponent, a consistent nearly one-third of the GOP electorate seems
angry enough to go to the polls and vote against the president, keeping
turnout levels close to the 1988 Bush-Dole race,'' Gans said.
	``On the Democratic side, however, the choices are propelling people
to the sidelines.''
	Five states -- Florida, Georgia, New York, Tennessee and Texas -- had
record low Democratic turnouts. Democratic turnout was down most sharply
in the South, 27.3 percent, while falling at a 10.8 percent rate in the
rest of the nation.
	Democratic turnout was up in six states headed by New Hampshire, up
34.7 percent, and Massachusetts, up 11.8 percent. Democratic turnout
decreased in 10 states, led by Mississippi, down 47.2 percent;
Tennessee, down 46.5 percent; and New York, down 38.8 percent.
	The survey group said a number of reasons might account for the lower
Democratic turnout including the lack of well-known Democrats on the
ballot, the decision of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson not to run
after boosting turnout four years ago, and the narrowness of differences
between the candidate who did run.
	Gans noted that former Sen. Paul Tsongas, who has dropped out of the
race, won four of the six states in which the Democratic turnout
increased.
	Republican turnout increased in seven states, led by Wisconsin, up
24.3 percent, and Maryland, up 15.5 percent. It decreased in nine
states, led by South Dakota, down 51.5 percent with only Bush on the
ballot, and South Carolina, down 27.8 percent.
	``Unlike the Democrats, the pattern in the Republican Party seems to
be one of active anger propelling people to the polls even when their
cause seems hopelessly lost,'' Gans said.
	Overall turnout increased in six states and decreased in 10. The
highest overall turnout was in New Hampshire where 41.3 percent of the
eligible voters turned out, followed by Wisconsin, where 33.05 voted.
The lowest was in Rhode Island, where only 8.55 percent of the eligible
voters turned out.
	Gans warned against reading too much or too little into the primary
turnout, noting that in 1984 the primary voting went down while the
general election went up.
	However, he said, if a dirty, nasty campaign results and turns off
the voters, ``turnout could fall below 50 percent for the first time
since the 1920s.''
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