Apathetic voters could decide who wins election in November
Although Haley Fox, 30, frequently chats politics with friends and family, she said, the moment the phrase “election 2024” comes up she feels her body fill with dread.
“There hasn’t been anything that has represented me for a really long time,” said Fox, a San Diego-based photographer. “So, like, 2024, just seeing what we have to choose from — it just feels so bleak.”
For Fox and many other Americans, election-year ennui is setting in. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump became their parties’ presumptive nominees weeks ago, capping one of the shortest primary seasons in U.S. history and beginning the long runway to the general election.
“It’s essentially two incumbents running against each other, is how it feels,” said Jared Sichel, a GOP strategist and co-founder of the Costa Mesa-based Republican marketing firm Winning Tuesday. “It’s kind of just Groundhog Day for a lot of people.”
Voters who don’t want either option — “double haters,” as they’re dubbed — make up about 15% of the electorate, according to polling last month from USA Today and Suffolk University. Other polls show their share to be closer to onefifth of the electorate. In a neck-and-neck race between Trump and Biden, the bloc will be crucial in November.
But whether they will turn out to vote is the million-dollar question. Most Californians are not looking forward to voting for president this year, according to a February report from the Public Policy Institute of California.
Although 84% of Californians agreed the 2024 election is “very important,” fewer than 4 in 10 said they are “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting for president. Democrats are less enthused than Republicans, and independents are more apathetic than either party, the study found.
The palpable apathy among voters has played out in low turnout in primaries across the country. Elections in presidential years typically get a boost from all of the national media attention. But the Washington Post found just 10% of voters nationwide had cast their ballots in primaries through mid-March.
California saw just 34% of registered voters cast ballots Super Tuesday, according to the secretary of state — the second-lowest presidential year primary turnout in the state’s history. (Just 31% of the state’s registered voters cast primary ballots in 2012, then-President Obama’s reelection year.)
Despite having more options for voting than ever, Los Angeles County was among the five California counties with the lowest voter turnouts in the March 5 primary, with 29% of registered voters casting ballots, the secretary of state reported. The low turnout came despite California moving its primary day to Super Tuesday, to align with 14 other states and American Samoa and encourage more voters to participate.
The Biden campaign, which was mostly quiet through Super Tuesday, launched its big push after the president’s State of the Union address two days later. His fiery speech, which pundits widely labeled as his way to fight against the narrative that he’s too old at 81 for another four years as president, kicked off a multiweek tour through key swing states.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff made stops in Nevada, Arizona and California. Biden and his surrogates headlined multiple fundraisers, racking up more cash to add to the campaign’s burgeoning coffer of $155 million, according to the latest finance reports. His financing far outpaces the $42 million that Trump’s campaign had at the end of February.
“The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher, and our campaign is investing our historic resources in reaching voters where they are, earning every vote, and making sure the American people know how much is on the line this November,” senior Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
“As Donald Trump promises to be a dictator on day one, rip away women’s freedom to choose, and rig the economy for himself and his wealthy friends at the expense of the middle class,” she continued, “it’s clear his toxic agenda and lack of resources mean he’s got nothing to win over the voters who will decide this election.”
Trump, meanwhile, has been busy with court appearances for his multimillion-dollar civil fraud judgment and preparations for the first of his four criminal trials, scheduled for April 15. He has also continued to be active on Truth Social, his social media platform, blasting Biden and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“The more that Trump is able to stay out of the news, or at least [if] what he’s saying is focused on Biden, he will be able to probably turn out some of the more independent voters,” Sichel said. “I think the Biden campaign’s turnout is much more going to be based on alarm about Trump than excitement about Biden.”