Pollsters: Turnout down in solidly red and blue states because people don’t think their votes will count

Republican pollster Chris Wilson and Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman both said on Tuesday that turnout is driven down in solidly Republican and Democratic states because people do not think their votes will count.

“I also heard people say ‘oh, you know, I’m from New York, it’s going to Democrat anyway. My vote doesn’t matter,'” Cooperman, a partner at Schoen Consulting, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”

“The same thing is true in Texas, where Trump only won Texas by 9 1/2 points,” Wilson, CEO at WPA Intelligence, added.

“I think that manifests itself there as well where you find that in a lot of states, they believe it’s kind of baked in who’s going to win, and so it does kind of drive down turnout,” he said.

National candidates tend to mostly travel to and campaign in swing states, as opposed to states dominated by their own party.

That could have cost Hillary Clinton in traditional Democratic strongholds such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016.

Clinton faced criticism after the election for not campaigning enough in those states, which President Trump flipped.

Trump, on the other hand, worked to target voters, especially the working class in those states.

— Julia Manchester