Members of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy and K-State Political Science department shared their thoughts on the recent presidential preference primary.
Less than 150,000 Kansans participated in the election, the first in Kansas since 1992. Locally the turnout was less than 7%.
“That’s a pretty low number, which I thinks reflects people feeling kind of blah right now in terms of the options laid out,” said Dr. Nate Birkhead.
Birkhead is the head of Kansas State’s political science department, and a member of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy, or ICDD.
Dr. Colene Lind is the Director of the ICDD, and she believes turnout would improve if the preferential primary was an annual event. She said…
“I wish that this wasn’t a one year decision. I wish that this was a decision that voters could count on year in and year out that in early March, Kansans are going to express their preference in presidential primaries, or at least in presidential election years. And I see value in people getting in the habit of voting.”
The ICDD recently hosted an event where the topic of discussion was about the peaceful transfer of power after elections occur.
Dr. Birkhead says the topic is important because of the upcoming presidential election.
“We’ve always had people who lost the election, and challenge the validity of the results. And so I think that one aspect of that is making sure that people trust the process, right, and understanding how our elections officials conduct themselves with incredible integrity. And so that when you are actually going to go into the polls, you can trust that your ballot is being counted appropriately.”
The discussion was the second of three similar events the ICDD is hosting.
Dr. Lind encourages citizens to listen to differing points of view, saying…
“It’s been documented that if your candidate doesn’t win the election, you are much more likely to say that the election wasn’t legitimate. But if you’re talking to people who see it differently, that corrects the winning effect, which is, of course, why we do what we do, at the Institute for civic discourse and democracy. We’re trying to encourage people to listen to other people outside of their bubbles.”
The ICDD is a non-partisan institute at Kansas State University that is dedicated to researching, teaching, and improving public participation in democratic governance.
