While discussing voter turnout for recent congressional elections in Georgia and Louisiana, host Chris Matthews asserted on the December 8 edition of MSNBC's Hardball that “in an average election, just showing up out of duty or habit or ritual -- patriotism, if you will -- Republicans are better at voting. More of them show up.” Matthews claimed Republicans' superior turnout in those elections, compared with the 2008 presidential election, was evidence of an “age-old advantage of the Republican Party.”
MATTHEWS: OK, let's get back to my question. Is there a pattern, Todd, against -- is there a post-, post-partum blues here, a -- well, whatever, because you see three races, two in Louisiana and one in Georgia. Are they just the usual -- let's take the Georgia one. The Georgia one we know Saxby Chambliss was gonna win because a lot of African-Americans didn't even bother voting for Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate for the Senate, the day they voted for Barack. They didn't come back and vote for the special election.
TODD HARRIS (Republican strategist): Yeah. Saxby Chambliss held on to a larger percentage of his actual Election Day vote, I think it was 65 percent --
MATTHEWS: Who were white.
HARRIS: Overwhelmingly, I'm sure, and Martin got, I think, 51 percent of -- held onto 51 percent of his vote. So, what it shows is that there was a significant diminishment in Democratic turnout without Barack Obama on the ballot. But that's no surprise --
[crosstalk]
MATTHEWS: OK, here we go back to the age-old advantage -- the age-old advantage of the Republican Party: When there's a lot of charisma out there -- and obviously, an African-American could become president -- the Democrats can vote as well as Republicans. But in an average election, just showing up out of duty or habit or ritual -- patriotism, if you will -- Republicans are better at voting. More of them show up.
STEVE McMAHON (Democratic strategist): Well, I'm not sure --
MATTHEWS: Why's that not the case?
McMAHON: Well, I'm not sure it's a partisan thing so much as it is the normal falloff between a presidential election year and a non-presidential election contest, and I think what's interesting here --
MATTHEWS: Well, why do Republicans vote better in non-presidential elections?
McMAHON: Well, when the turnout is lower, the better educated, more affluent people tend to show up.
MATTHEWS: It's class.
McMAHON: It's a little bit of class, it's education, it's affluence, it's a lot of things. It's probably paying attention to current events. A lot of people in Louisiana apparently didn't know that there was an election --
MATTHEWS: I heard that.
McMAHON: -- this weekend, and so that would have dealt with --
MATTHEWS: In Louisiana, that was the case, yeah.
McMAHON: -- in Louisiana, I'm sorry --
MATTHEWS: They thought Bill Jefferson had been re-elected despite he was indicted on all those counts. They thought he was back in. I read some accounts where people said, “I didn't bother voting because I thought he was in.”
HARRIS: Right.
