Poll: High Voter Anger–Yet Low Voter Interest This year the American voter is saying, “I am mad as hell and I am going to take it once more.” As the country enters the final three weeks before the 2014 congressional elections, a great dissonance exists between voters’ mood and their actions. The irony of 2014 is that Americans are furious with the system and the country’s direction–yet they have exceptionally low interest in the election. Voters hardly are lighting the fuse to set off some big explosion on Election Day. Although money is being spent in record amounts for an off-year election and candidates seem more vituperative and aggressive than ever, voters seem to just ignore it all. Is interest growing? No. In the Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg survey released this weekend, just 60% of registered voters say their level of interest in this election is an 8 to 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. This suggests that national turnout in November will be tepid, particularly because interest has not grown at all over the past 30 days. Young people seem particularly uninterested. For voters under 35, just 37% fall in the 8-to-10 category, and they account for only 11% of high-interest voters, compared to 28% of all registered voters. If there is going to be an election surprise, the surprise will be how much money was spent per voter to get him or her to cast a ballot. Terrorism, the economy, and health care all are on the agenda, but they look likely to take a back seat to the issue of ennui in this campaign year. Peter D. Hart, founder of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, helps conduct the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll and the Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg Policy Center survey
Traditional wisdom is that a low turnout election favors republicans. They've done precious little to get their voters energized however, and many conservatives are as annoyed at the party as they are at obama.
Yes, because the voters are hearing too much rightwing nonsense. They've been polled, on the one hand a majority say the country's economy is bad, and on the other hand, a majority say that they, personally, are doing well, even thriving.