Turning out non-voters. Recipe for a win in an election?

in politics •  5 years ago 

Pet peeve on something I hear far too often from well-meaning but woefully misguided LP friends:

Non-voters are not a latent libertarian constituency of radical anarchists just waiting to be mobilized. Their political views are effectively identical to habitual voters, they just care less. If anything, they're probably a shade less inclined towards libertarian policy views, but for the most part it's a wash. If you somehow got them all to vote, they'd vote for Republicans and Democrats in about the same proportions as their peers.

Boosting turnout is a strategy to build on your base of regular voters. It can get you that crucial extra point or two in a close race. It is not an alternative to having that base.

Every time somebody says they're going to win an election by turning out non-voters, what I hear is somebody who's never sat down and calculated their win number and mapped out how they plan to reach it. Elections are decided by people who vote, and those are the people you need to reach and persuade.

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This is only evidence that you don't actually go outside and do any campaigning. As a campaign volunteer, I've personally talked to hundreds of random non voters and most, if not all, are wanting massive change. Guess who's offering that? Bernard Sanders.