Since the election is only 2 days away I looked at some numbers for this election. If there really will be somewhere around 62% turnout, then there would be about 2,709,400 votes cast. We all know that the Repubs in Wisconsin came into power based on a low turnout, but there were only 2.13 million cast that year and Walker won by around 100,000. And if the polls were really as close as 49% to 48%, then Walker is leading by around 20,000 votes. So the question is how do we get a lot more sympathetic Barret voters. The answer to that lies in the results 4 years ago in 2008.
Working America
It’s worth noting that although 65 percent is high, it’s not at the high water mark of 2008, when thousands of first-time and revitalized voters elected President Barack Obama. Turnout was 69.2 percent. At least 400,000 Wisconsinites voted in 2008 but did not show up in 2010.
So who were those 400,000 voters exactly? JS online
In Wisconsin, anywhere from 10% to 15% of voters typically register on election day. In 2008, about 460,000 people used election-day registration. Many were new voters, but many were habitual voters updating their addresses.
New voters went for Obama by a huge 70-30% margin and should provide a boost for Barrett if they manage to show up. I believe that phone banks should concentrate on people who just registered to vote in 2008 and make sure that they show up to help turn this thing for Barret. Also one more good snippet from Working America.org
A key county in this election will be Milwaukee County, where Walker once served as County Executive (he won through a recall election, by the way) and where Democratic challenger Tom Barrett serves as Mayor of Milwaukee. Turnout in the sea change election of 2008 was 316,916, but that dropped to 209,929 two years later.
That’s almost 107,000 voters in Milwaukee County alone that have yet to express how they feel about Scott Walker at the ballot box – and with polls showing a consistent statistical tie, they are sure to make the difference on Tuesday’s election.
If you know any democrats who haven't voted in 2010 in Milwaukee make sure to locate them and get them to the polling place.