In his book The Ethics of Voting, MSB prof Jason Brennan argues that all adult citizens have the right to vote … but that they shouldn’t exercise that right unless they are informed, rational, and aiming for the common good.
Regarding how informed citizens are, Prof. Brennan, referencing other research and studies, writes
Overall levels of political knowledge are low.
For example, 79% of Americans can’t identify their state senators.
During election years, most citizens cannot identify any congressional candidates in their district.
And, political knowledge is distributed unevenly.
The top quartile (of informed citizens) knows much, but the bottom quartiles knows hardly anything.
Ballparking, political scientists conclude that less than half of voters are informed; some put the number as low as 10%
Against that backdrop, I was pretty encouraged when Nielsen reported that over 67 million households tuned into last weeks Presidential debate.
To put that number in context, about 125 million people voted in the 2008 Presidential election.
That means that over half the number of people likely to vote this year watched the debates.
And, the 67 million was almost evenly divided between those over and under 55 years old.
Interestingly, Pew Research reports that over 80% of Romney supporters have given the election a lot of thought … not so much for Obama supporters … 1 in 3 of them have not given the election a lot of thought.
Hmmm.
Too bad all voters aren’t required to watch the debate before voting …
Tags: debates, Ethics of Voting
The Homa Files 
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