NYT: Bernie Sanders Lags Hillary Clinton in Introducing Himself to Black Voters

[MineralMan]

94. So, you think that most voters take the time to do that?

Really? They don't, frankly. More's the pity. The vast majority of voters get their information from the major network news programs and from campaign ads. That's the reality. Now, during the primaries, the percentage of voters who actually try to learn something on their own is a bit higher, but not that much.

I canvass a precinct in Minnesota, and I can tell you what I hear. Most of the people I talk to who are active voters know very little about the candidates other than what has appeared in their campaign ads and sound bites on the evening news. And that's only for the candidates for President, Senators, and House Members. Even then, they are information-poor. My job is to give them more information and try to convince those who are unsure if they are going to bother to vote at all to go to the polls and vote.

Less than 10% of actual voters really bother to go learn about candidates on their own. DU is such a self-selected group of politically-interested people that is unrepresentative of actual voters. We care a lot. Most voters care much less about positions and policy matters, except where they are directly affected.

Yes, if voters don't really know who Sanders is, they won't vote for him. It's up to Bernie Sanders and his campaign to become known to voters. If they fail in that and fail in showing all voting blocs why Sanders deserves their vote on issues important to those blocs, he will lose spectacularly.