WASHINGTON, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — The turnout of the US midterm elections is going to be predictably low as the campaign was more about mutual attacks rather than about the country’s issues at stake, Allan Lichtman, Professor of History at American University told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
“It [the elections] has been mostly negative attacks on your opponent, or if you are a Republican on President [Barack] Obama,” Lichtman said. “There is not a great clash of principles to really excite people in this election, which is why the turnout is going to be low.”
The professor claimed that most potentially eligible Americans, adult US citizens, are not going to vote in this election.
“Maybe fewer than 40 percent of adult US citizens will vote, which means 60 percent or more don’t vote,” he predicted, stressing that the turnout is also significant for the outcome of the elections.
Lichtman explained that the voters tend to be less minority, better educated, and more affluent than non-voters and that favors Republicans.
“So, Republicans benefit if the turnout is low, the Democrats are going to benefit if the turnout is high,” he concluded.
The professor added that one of the main reasons the 2014 midterm are unpopular is because the elections primarily focused on the matter of the current US president instead of on some particular problems, and became “sort of up and down on Obama.”
“The biggest issue is President Obama, do you like his leadership and the direction he is leaning the country or don’t you,” he explained. “That is what most of these elections are turning on rather than a particular issue like how we [the United States] deal with the crisis in Ukraine, what our policy should be towards [Russia’s] President [Vladimir] Putin, negotiations in Iran.”
“And the truth is no one is inspired by this election,” Lichtman asserted. “It’s kind of been an issueless election.”
Lichtman claimed that Republicans are definitely going to control the US House, but the main question now is whether they will control the Senate.
“If they control the Senate, they will control both houses of Congress, and we’ll have truly divided government, a Republican congress and a Democratic president,” he said, adding that it will lead to the only two possible scenarios.
The worst case scenario is they fight for two years, and nothing gets done, the professor claimed.
“The best case scenario is they both realize, they both can benefit from finding some common ground and getting something done for the good of the country,” he concluded.
The professor also emphasized the role of money in these year’s midterm elections.
“Money does make a difference,” he stressed, giving an example of Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.
Lichtman claimed that the Senate minority leader was very unpopular in his state but he had a lot of outside money coming into a relatively small and poor state. “He has mastered over 55 million dollars, and that has really bolstered his campaign and made him the favorite,” the expert said.
On Tuesday, Americans are voting in the midterm elections to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 senators, 36 governors and 46 state legislatures. The vote will determine which of the two US political parties will take control of the Congress.
