Skewed Electorate and Issue Advocacy Group Participation
Primary elections in the United States generally draw a very low voter turnout. In addition, only a small portion of the public may be educated on the issue stances of all primary candidates, as primary elections typically use little or no mass media advertising. Party activists, ideologues, and local party leaders may constitute an unusually high number of, or exert disproportionate levels on influence on, those who actually vote.
This situation provides opportunities for organizations focused on a single issue, such as gun control, taxation, or abortion. Such organizations may be able to convince their supporters to endure the difficulty of voting, while other eligible voters may not want to take the trouble for a "minor election."
Read more about this topic: Primary Challenge
Famous quotes containing the words issue and/or group:
“Public administrators would get along better if they would restrain the impulse to butt in or be dragged into trouble. They should remain silent until an issue is reduced to its lowest terms, until it boils down into something like a moral issue.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)