DOESN’T ANYONE TAKE TIME TO VOTE?

Monday, July 6th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

DOESN’T ANYONE TAKE TIME TO VOTE?

Remember the 1970 song by Chicago: “Does anybody really know what time it is, does anybody really care?” Louisiana held an election last week and only 17% of registered voters showed up. Only a handful of voters, both Republican and Democratic, bothered to cast a ballot for United States Senator, one of the most important offices in the nation. So why wasn’t there more interest?

Louisiana has become a strong red state with major advantages for the Republican candidate. A number of Democratic-leaning voters feel going to the polls is just not worth the effort. “Why bother if my vote really won’t make any difference,” is the feeling of many more moderate-inclined voters.

It’s much harder for candidates to get to voters today. It used to be that a voter had the choice of three TV stations, a few radio stations and one local newspaper. The internet has changed all this. From cable to web newspapers to information streaming, voters have so many new choices. And political media campaigns often get lost in the scuffle. It is simply much harder to get to the average voter without raising and spending more campaign dollars.

“Retail politicking,” particularly in statewide races, has become a thing of the past. Up until just a few years ago, candidates would never miss the chance to shake hands at numerous well-attended festivals and fairs across the state. When I was out looking for votes during my seven statewide elections, I would send over a convertible at the crack of dawn on parade day to get in the front of the line, often jousting with a number of other candidates. Today, few statewide candidates show up for such events.

Now candidates raise campaign dollars and hand it over to consultants, who then decide how the money is to be spent. And the majority of the spending is for 30-second attack ads in the final days of the campaign. Both sides attack each other, and voters are relegated to the choices of bad or worse. As one candidate put it: “I want voters to hold their nose and vote for me.”

The press does not cover political campaigns like they once did. This is a reflection of the financial cutbacks by newspapers, radio and TV stations across the state. Radio stations are doing much less local programming. Thousands of voters used to listen to interviews about local and state politicians during morning and afternoon drive time. But much of the programming is now syndicated, with stations using talk show hosts who have little interest in local politics. TV stations in the state, with a few exceptions, no longer have the resources to do any in-depth comparisons of candidates. The result is that voters are less informed, and thus less interested.

I wonder if many voters in the state know how to vote anymore? Today, more and more voters toe the party line, and look for either the R or D after a candidate’s name. Too often, we don’t consider which candidate has a broad vision for what is in the best interest of Louisiana.

Have we relegated ourselves into “kneejerk” voting based on single issues?
Consultants talk about the Catholic vote, the abortion vote, and the Cajun vote, often all based on self-interest, and not founded on a range of issues that are critical to getting Louisiana out of its economic doldrums. If these “self-interest” issues are not on the line, doesn’t this dampen the interest in going to the polls?

And finally, there might be some truth in the view of comedian Jay Leno. “If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.