Word: voter
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Under different circumstances, Barre's classic political mix of threats and rewards might have won approval from French voters, but his promises seemed to lag behind reality. Unemployment stood at 1.05 million (4.8% of the work force); inflation, down a mere half-point since Barre took over 17 months ago, is still racing along at an annual rate of 9%, and the economic growth rate creeped at a sluggish 3%. The irony was that despite the falling out between Marchais and Mitterrand, the latest polls showed a 51% to 45% voter preference for the left. The two-phase elections...
Marcos felt he was so far ahead in voter popularity that he teased his critics more than he responded to them. He defied them to band together to wage a specific campaign. "They keep running off to their corners where they can talk all alone to their supporters," said Marcos. But in view of the overwhelmingly pro-Marcos returns from the polls, apparently there were not very many supporters to whom the critics could talk...
Whitlam promised to combat joblessness with a $550 million public spending program of capital-works projects, local job training and an employer subsidy for each new worker hired before March 1. Fraser relied heavily for voter appeal on an income tax cut scheduled to take effect in February; in the last days of campaigning, he even set up a nationwide "dial-your-tax-cut" gimmick that enabled telephone callers to inquire about their individual bonanzas. As for unemployment, Fraser called Whitlam's political spending plan inflationary, insisting the Liberals had "the real answer": programs aimed at stimulating private investment...
Trivial as some of these matters may seem, Ruth Clusen, president of the League of Women Voters (which often rallies its troops in local battles over ballot issues), declares that the referendum "is the ultimate tool in the hands of the people." Says Fred Button, an expert on voter attitudes: "It's healthy when the public thinks it has a piece of the action. It's a safety valve. The people don't do any better and they don't do any worse than the legislators." Washington-based officials of the U.S. Conference of Mayors tend...
...ground rule should be clarity in the way issues are presented. Even the most patient and literate voter must puzzle over some of the arcanely drafted proposals. And while the ballots are frequently abstruse, the media campaigns for or against measures are often all too simple. Many voters make up their minds at the last minute on the basis of scanty information and are susceptible to slanted arguments cleverly presented on television by well-heeled pressure groups...