Confession of a Former Low-Information Voter

By Rosslyn Smith

I have an embarrassing confession to make: I was once a low-information voter. Indeed, I entered the voting booth that Election Day with only sketchy ideas about some of the candidates based upon bits and pieces of news I had caught on the fly, and I was still uncertain as to who was going to get my vote. The incumbent was the media's favorite but had made a mess of everything. His main challenger was dismissed as stupid when he wasn't being despised for being evil. There was a third-party candidate on the ballot who seemed to be my kind of guy on a tribal identity level. How was I to decide? The year was 1980. Four months earlier, after six years of clerical and quasi-clerical work following receiving my BA, I had finally landed by first career position in Chicago. Not only had I been charged with helping turn around a troubled operation that couldn't get a handle on rising costs, but I was going to law school four.... (Read Full Article)