Anthony King Quotes

Elections aren't just about who votes but who doesn't vote.

During my time as a political strategist, one of the most vexing problems was figuring out why so many people vote against their perceived interests.

Calling out people for not voting, what experts term 'public shaming,' can prod someone to cast a ballot.

There's an old rule of thumb in politics that 90 percent of all 90 year-olds vote and 25 percent of all 25 year-olds vote.

The larger percentage of people you have registered, the larger percentage of people you will have voting.

Independents come back, usually right before an election. They tune out, and then they start refocusing.

Turnout is good for the system.

But did you know that during the past quarter century, no presidential election has been won by more than ten million ballots cast? Yet every federal election during the same time period had at least one hundred million people of voting age who did not bother to vote!

[People] are ready to go out and vote. There's a difference between being ready and energized and actually going out and voting.

If you don't vote, you're going to get a spanking.

I am a political recidivist. An incorrigible, repeat voter. A career lever-pusher. My electoral rap sheet is as long as your arm. Over the course of three decades, I have voted for presidents and school board members. I have voted in high hopes and high dudgeon. I have voted in favor of candidates and merely against their opponents. I have voted for propositions written with such complexity that I needed Noam Chomsky to deconstruct their meaning. I have been a single-issue voter and a marginal voter. I have even voted for people who ran unopposed. Hold an election and I'll be there.

We do have some people that have never voted before.

In America, one of our challenges, historically, is that we have very low voting rates, even during presidential elections.

I've voted in every election - not always for the same political party and never with any degree of enthusiasm.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

Electoral turnout is falling among the young, and political apathy is on the rise.

We've got 50 percent voter turnout for presidential elections. That's appalling. We can do so much better.

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

Polling in a general election is pretty accurate, because turnout is usually high.

The largest party in America, by the way, is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It's the party of non-voters.

There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election.

Young voters are crucial. The trend over recent years has been for them to drift away. So anything that gets young voters interested in the electoral process not only has an immediate effect, but has an effect for years and years.

A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.

One of the enduring myths of campaign analysis is that you can actually count the number of 'undecided' voters by asking voters if they are undecided or not. Sometimes, significant numbers of voters actually change their minds.

Most people vote against somebody, rather than for somebody.