Officials project record-number of voters to vote in primary
Today, voters in Missouri, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois are choosing which candidate they want to see on the November ballot.
Political experts project believe despite the fact that it’s only a primary election, record-numbers of voters will turn out today.
Political science professor at Columbia College Dr. Terry Smith said this primary has high stakes because even though it’s late in the game, none of the candidates have a lock on the nomination yet and competition is fierce.
“Every candidate has great strengths and significant weaknesses,” he said. “Nobody has emerged from the pack to clear the field where voters can say ‘I’m totally comfortable with this candidate.'”
He thinks this leads voters to believe their voice will truly be heard because no candidate is beginning a victory march.
“By this time, in recent years, it’s been settled. It’s been very clear who the nominee was going to be, certainly at least in one party, and sometimes in both,” he said. “It is absolutely not clear now who the nominees are going to be so people are willing to say ‘let’s go vote because my vote might matter.'”
At about 5:00 on Tuesday, almost 2,000 voters in Boone County had changed their addresses for the primary vote.
“You have a couple of candidates that are bringing people to the polls who ordinarily don’t vote in primaries. Some people are registering to vote just so they can vote for Donald Trump Bernie Sanders,” Smith said. “There’s some people being stimulated to participate in the process who ordinarily don’t.”
