Tuesday, October 31, 2006

One Demographic Overlooked By Politicians

The black vote, Hispanic vote, women's vote, rich vote, poor vote, management vote, labor vote, etc., all politicians pander to certain demographics. But there is one demographic that is widely overlooked in the stump speeches. The Poughkeepsie Journal has details.


Steven T. Vermilye was a home inspector and general contractor who grew up in Croton-on-Hudson - he and his father helped build the boat launch at Senasqua Park - went to college in Texas and settled in New Paltz in 1971.

Betty L. Johnson came from a small town in Virginia and moved to Beacon when she was 17, where she raised eight children while boxing duct tape at Tuck Tape and working in the kitchen at the Castle Point Veterans Hospital.

David S. Stairs was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and came to the mid-Hudson Valley in 1927, where as a 16 year-old he pounded hot rivets into the New York Central Railroad at Croton-Harmon and then spent 45 years working his way up through Texaco's research center in Glenham.

The three mid-Hudson Valley residents had little in common during their lives, but share one thing now: Records exist of them casting a vote after they died.

So, I'd like to introduce you to the most disenfranchised and ignored demographic in politics, the dead voters.

Happy Halloween

2 comments:

Malott said...

That's a great story for Halloween.

A local conservative talk show referenced this story and somewhere came up with stats that show - 4 out of 5 dead dead voters prefer Democrats.

Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that this may be why the Dems so vociferously fight against voter photo-identification.

LA Sunset said...

Malott,

Every major urban area has a number of dead voters every year. Most urban precincts are Democrat, so I guess it stands to reason they would overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates. ;)