NYT: Democrats Give Republicans a Fight for the Elderly

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats Give Republicans a Fight for the Elderly
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: August 11, 2004


When President Bush signed a Medicare bill into law in December, Republicans thought it would allow them to make sharp inroads into elderly voters.

But Democrats say the elderly are proving an unexpectedly fertile voting bloc for their party this year because of dissatisfaction with the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, disproportionate opposition to the war in Iraq, worries about mounting deficits and wariness over talk of altering Social Security.

As one indication of Democratic prospects, the Alliance for Retired Americans, a three-year-old political organization that claims three million members, will endorse Senator John Kerry for president today in Las Vegas. The group plans to conduct full-scale get-out-the-vote operations in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania - all states with large elderly populations, said its executive director, Edward Coyle.

As another indication, Mr. Kerry's campaign will announce today a multiprong "Seniors for Kerry-Edwards" outreach program, with action groups in each state, events at senior centers and retirement homes, intergenerational get-out-the-vote efforts linking grandparents and their grandchildren, and even a Web-based initiative.

Aides said that within several weeks, Mr. Kerry would roll out plans to help the elderly with Election Day transportation, as well as with signing up for absentee ballots, at which Republicans have long excelled....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/politics/campaign/11elderly.html

[tedoll78]

1. I have long wondered..

why we don't rely on absentee ballots as much as the GOP does. Imagine if we were to identify the strongest Democratic areas in each swing state and then have volunteers/workers go from door-to-door in those areas with absentee ballots, voter registration forms, and a 1-800 number for people to call concerning poll locations & voting irregularities. Even if our turnout were to rise a mere 3%, we'd win so many more races..

*sigh*

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Maybe this absentee-ballot effort among the elderly is a sign that...

the campaign will mount similar efforts among other targeted voters. The Republicans' success at this has worried me, also.