Stories related to: voters

Robert Mugabe is wasting little time. Zimbabwe is expected to announce today that he will win in a landslide and be sworn in to a new term as early as tomorrow, Reuters reports. That would allow him to attend Monday's summit of African Union nations with the election wrapped up. Meanwhile, stories continue to surface about Mugabe's supporters forcing people to vote for him under threat of torture or death. More »

Seeking to shake criticism that he’s nothing more than a talented orator, Barack Obama has spent the week meeting voters face-to-face, the New York Times reports. His massive primary-campaign rallies were energizing, but also “isolating,” said his chief strategist. So instead the presumptive Democratic nominee has hosted round-table discussions, toured a hospital, school, and retirement home, and met privately with a family. More »

For years, Bangalore—India’s answer to Silicon Valley—has endured traffic jams, power blackouts and a chaotic airport that businesses blame on politicians who’ve ignored the city’s IT elites to court rural voters. Now, Reuters reports, an updated constituency map giving urban voters more clout has hope high for change after state elections end Thursday. More »

John McCain is prepping for a smear campaign this summer while camp Obama, ever cool and controlled, awaits the first strike. "It's going to be Swift Boat times five on both sides," said one McCain adviser who expects Obama to return fire. McCain's challenge is to hit above the belt and not seem racist, while Obama needs to react fast without sparking endless fights, Newsweek reports. More »

Keystone state voters prefer old-school to bling, Politico reports—which is why they favor Hillary Clinton by 12 points in the state's April 22 primary. “If you are going to introduce a brand new product, you don’t come to Pennsylvania,” one analyst said. “We are much more about heritage than cutting edge here.” Hillary has the heritage: Her father grew up there, and her last name has already hit the ballot twice thanks to husband Bill. More »

How is the Jeremiah Wright controversy playing with voters in Pennsylvania and Indiana? The reaction isn't unanimous, but the Boston Globe finds many who say the inflammatory sound bites swayed them toward Hillary Clinton. “Twenty years he put up with that?” said one 82-year old Indiana woman said of Barack Obama. “He was softening me up. He was kind of even with Hillary.” More »

Millions of voters in 24 states are leaving home early this morning—or taking off early—or arranging child care as they head to polls to choose their favorites for the White House, and the presidential hopefuls will be hoping their last-ditch efforts to win them over have paid off. Both the Democratic and GOP races are tight, and with the biggest prize, California, reporting last, voters should be skeptical of any early media spin about who's winning, writes the New York Times .  More »

Rudy Giuliani isn't the type to kiss babies in Florida—or even shake hands. The former mayor has run a detached, tightly controlled campaign, eschewing personal contact, avoiding questions, and rushing past crowds after events, the Washington Post reports. His brusque style is leaving uninspired voters in his wake. “There was just no energy, you know?” said one. More »

The California GOP decided last year to bar independent voters from its presidential primary, and the decision may cost the party dearly, the LA Times reports. Independents are welcome to vote in the Democratic primary—and once they've voted for a party in a primary, they usually stick to it in the general election, experts say. More »

Moderates in the GOP are dreading upcoming votes that will force them to choose between loyalty to their president and their reelection prospects, the Washington Post reports. Upcoming congressional showdowns on the Iraq war, children’s health care, and spending will be particularly perilous to those facing voters next fall. “We are at a very significant juncture,” said one representative. “I’d use a metaphor… about something hitting the fan.” More »

Democratic hopefuls took part in a Spanish-language debate in Miami yesterday, having questions translated UN-style from Spanish to English, and answers back again into Spanish. Though he'd agreed to the ground rules, bilingual contender Bill Richardson couldn't resist  asking in Spanish if he could continue in Spanish, and Sen. Chris Dodd also took the opportunity to flaunt his fluency. More »

With 69% of Latino voters going Democratic in 2006, anti-immigration sentiment among GOP presidential hopefuls may only serve to turn off the remaining 30. Meanwhile, the Latino population is growing, especially in swing states. "Even Texas could become a swing state a couple of elections from now," the American Prospect 's Paul Waldman writes. More »

A Bush spokeswoman has slammed a Hillary Clinton campaign ad in which the Senator says that many Americans, including combat troops, are invisible to the president. But the New York Daily News reports that advisers to Clinton are delighted by the shrill reaction, as they increasingly seek to paint their candidate as a thorn in Bush's side. More »

Barack Obama is having trouble appealing to the more downscale wing of the Democratic Party, a problem on display in a recent Iowa farm appearance in which the Chicagoan complained about the price of arugula at Whole Foods. More a “wine track” than a “beer track” candidate, Obama must find a way to bond with blue collar voters—or Clinton will own them, Newsweek reports. More »

The backing of gay rights groups could turn swing-state voters against a candidate, new polls show. Politico reports that Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania voters, by a large margin, consider the support of such groups reason to vote against rather than for a candidate; no one since JFK has been elected president without winning two of those states. More »

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will keep his job despite a humiliating defeat for his ruling party in Sunday's election, party officials said today. Only 10 months into his term, Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party lost their majority as voters reacted to a series of government scandals. Now government gridlock looms as the entering party clashes with the embattled leader. More »

France has been gripped by a serious case of political stagnation, and the recent election between two bright young things—Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal—has smashed it out of its stupor, William Pfaff reflects in the New York Review of Books . More »

The religious right is lining up behind Rudy Giuliani, Pew tells the Politico, despite the candidate's support for gay rights and abortion. Analysis of recent polls suggests that pragmatic social conservatives are so frightened of a Democrat in the White House they're passing over harder-line hopefuls like McCain, and buying Guiliani's more-electable-than-thou pitch. More »

The number of non-white Americans has passed 100 million—a third of the current population—for the first time, the Census Bureau reports, and the growing minority population is creating a new racial generation gap. Hispanics had the lowest median age at 27.4, while the median age of whites, 40.5, was the highest reported. More »