Rating Kentuckian's voter interest in the fall of 2024 can be hard to gauge

The November General Election is now just three weeks away. Candidates from the presidential level down to city halls and county courthouses all across the country are pushing for just one more vote. And that begs the question...what are voters thinking?

American author and historian Douglas Brinkley says he’s always been engaged with politics. During a lecture last week at the University of Kentucky he demonstrated that by running down the list of U.S. presidents, touching on their qualities. Afterward, he discussed today’s political environment. Brinkley said the Electoral College is a point of frustration for some including young voters who may not agree with the state-by-state method.

“Al Gore won the popular vote over Bush, but he never was president. Hilary Clinton beat Trump by millions of votes but she wasn’t president. So I think the thought that it’s not a democracy where it’s you just add up all the votes and who has the most is president,” said Brinkley.

Brinkley said there are other issues to consider like irresponsible media, misinformation, money taking over the American political process, and not getting the best and brightest as candidates over fears of having their lives dissected.

About two-thirds of the voter-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election, the highest for any national election since 1900. Still, 34% didn’t vote.

Steve Voss is a University of Kentucky political science professor. He said a previous thought was that low participation meant apathy and that was unhealthy for the system. Voss said as politics become more polarized, that’s led to increased engagement.

“We have a lot of voters engaged with a world that they dislike. And many of them are motivated not to show support for or excited about the candidate they’ll be supporting. It’s mostly negative in an attempt to stop or prevent the dangers that they think the other side represents,” said Voss.

Voss noted in the past there was what he characterized as “a healthy apathy”, that people thought the country would run along pretty well no matter who was president. The political scientist added that’s not the case today.

UK Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Media Al Cross said engagement is a difficult thing to assess. And with all the attention given to this presidential election, for well over a year in the national media, Cross said turnout remains a question.

“While there’s a high level of interest among the partisans on both sides, there’s a reduced level of interest by people in the middle because they don’t like their choice and they’re tired of what politics looks like. So, we’ll probably have a lower turnout than we did in 2020,” said Cross.

Cross, who spent more than a quarter century as a political reporter for the Courier-Journal newspaper, said there is Trump fatigue, even among some Republicans. He said for Harris some may say there’s not enough knowledge about her.

Using a one-to-ten rating system, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton rates her interest in politics at a ten. And she bases that primarily on how politics determine who runs governments.

“You’re really talking about people who are elected to office. And the people who are elected to office they either make the policy or they do the administrative side of running government and it’s really important,” said Gorton.

Politicians are usually working to reach potential voters. That certainly includes those relatively new to the process. At the University of Kentucky Student Center, Jada McDowell of Tampa, and Daylen Alexander of Atlanta ranked their interest at a seven.

“I like to like know my rights and be educated on the things that are changing in the world internationally and nationally. And I think like the system of how we do things is very interesting but I can’t always keep up to date with certain things and like certain aspects of politics all the time,” said McDowell.

“I mean when politics is on I don’t really watch it because it’s like it doesn’t interest me when people are talking about it, but I still want to know about it, so when they’re stuff I need to vote for and everything or something I need to look into, I will. But, like if it’s on T.V. I’m not gonna turn it on,” said Alexander.

The UK students said they plan to vote in November. As far as a prediction on the presidential race, UK Professor Emeritus Al Cross said, quote, “This is the most unpredictable election I’ve ever seen and I’m not about to predict anything.” UK Political Scientist Steve Voss said close races usually drive turnout and that can have down-ballot consequences. Over the next three weeks, political interest is likely to be the highest it’s gonna get.

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