Editorial: Guessing game
This year’s election will be harder to figure in advance than most of its predecessors.
Of course, the dopesters often have been wrong in trying to foretell elections in normal times.
But this one ought to make their hair curl. And that will apply to the candidates, as well.
This is the first presidential election since the draft. Some 10 million men are in the Armed Forces. How many of them are voters is problematical, but undoubtedly an overwhelming majority.
How many will cast ballots will depend on how well the states assume their obligation to provide them with the machinery for voting. It will also depend on the exigencies of war, for the Armed Forces’ personnel constantly is on the move and it will be impossible to get ballots to thousands of men in actual combat.
But there is another factor which will make election guessing a dubious assignment this year.
Thousands of Americans at home have been uprooted by the war. Eleven states are estimated to have gained population since 1940 despite the loss of many thousands to military service. Millions of workers have left their homes to take war jobs in distant spots.
Voting requirements among the states differ, some requiring only six months’ residence, others a year. Many of the war workers who have transferred probably haven’t caught up with the voting requirements.
All this will total up to a lot of confusion.
It is enough to drive an election prognosticator nuts.