There always seems to be a reminder that KCMO Officials have no idea what is going on around them. The world is changing...and city officials seem completely oblivious.
Dan at Gone Mild was one of the first to note that the city has closed down several polling places before one of the most competitive mayoral elections in city history. And sadly, the Jackson County Election Board couldn't even get their website updated so people could get accurate information about where to vote Tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in a report in today's Kansas City Star, officials are expected only about 50,000 voters to go to the polls tomorrow (and the majority of them are going to be old people). This prediction comes only 2 months after voters turned out en masse for the November election. Sure, there were several major state-wide issues on the ballot, but I think people in public positions have missed a societal trend.
In my work, we study a lot about generational trends. Generation Y -- basically people who are roughly 15-28 years of age, are one of the largest generations of people in history -- and, as a group, are already proving themselves to be INCREDIBLY politically active. These are the people who supported Light Rail in the November election. These are the people who are writing blogs about local politics like Tony's KC, Dan's Gone Mild and BlogKC. These are the people who go to Tony's KC and make it one of the most popular local blogs in the city. These are the people who will likely make Mark Forsythe, a younger candidate who has been very grass-roots in his campaign that included a very active online platform, one of the finalists in the 4th District City Council.
I may be wrong...but I think there will probably be nearly double the turnout at the polls tomorrow than "experts" expect. And many of them will be younger voters. I think the lack of updated their website and lack of understanding that not everyone in the world is a Baby Boomer is limiting this city's progress.
Young people, please prove me right and the old-school KC People wrong...because I strongly think they are.
This is out there...but with all the Star’s other electioneering I wouldn't doubt it: Do you think they're so set on predicting a low turn out so it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy? So that the status quo has a better chance of prevailing?
There was a study pretty recently that the best way to influence others behavior is to position the desired behavior as what “everyone else is doing”. So if everyone else is skipping the election why shouldn’t you? The Star may not be doing it for this purpose but I’d bet its having the same effect.
Posted by: MichelleD | February 27, 2007 at 11:38 AM