For the past year, the Shorenstein Center has conducted weekly national polls of the American electorate, seeking to discover those factors that affect the public's involvement in the presidential campaign. In a recent survey, respondents were provided a list of common complaints about the electoral process and asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each one. The results reveal a public disdainful of modern election practices. Respondents likely to vote in Tuesday's election are not in all respects similar to those unlikely to participate.
Likely voters are measurably less skeptical but have anything but a benign view of politics.
More than a third question the basic honesty of most politicians, three-fourths question the campaign promises that candidates make, and a fifth say that Republican and Democratic politicians are too much alike. When it comes to the way that campaigns today are run, however, the differences between voters and non-voters disappear almost entirely. In other ways, however, voters and non-voters are still quite different groups. Non-voters are markedly less interested in politics, less attentive to news, and less content with their personal lives and the condition of the country as a whole. They also differ in their policy preferences.