On November 8, the Des Moines Register published this story. The reporter noticed that in one of the city’s poorest precincts, the vote for Mayor on November 6 was tied between the incumbent Mayor (who was re-elected with 80% in the city as a whole) and his Socialist Workers Party challenger.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
From the story:
Newberry’s party affiliation, however, scared off some of them.
“I just didn’t want to vote for her, and I didn’t know anybody else to vote for,” said Ellis, who voted for Cownie. “I didn’t want to vote for the Socialist Party.”
These are the people who decide elections, folks. They don’t decide based on platforms, integrity, or anything like that. They vote based on spite for the name of the party.
There’s a depressing sidebar to this story: only 6 of 310 registered voters turned out at the polls. I don’t know anything about absentee voting in Iowa, but even with a generous allowance for absentee ballots, turnout couldn’t have been more than 5 per cent. This is to elect a mayor, not members of some obscure parks commission.