11/03/08 The election and the rural vote

Farm and Ranch November 3, 2008 Just one more day and it will be over. The election that is. Hopefully. Rural residents have a reputation for getting out to vote and with almost 20 percent of Americans living in rural areas, those voters can have a huge impact on who wins, and who loses. Maslyn: "The rural vote is very important in this year's election because if you look at the most recent battleground maps most of the states tend to be states with large rural populations." That is American Farm Bureau public policy director Mark Maslyn who says rural voters have traditionally favored more conservative candidates but Senator McCain cannot take them for granted this year. Maslyn: "Look at the toss up states, or the competitive states. President Bush many of those very strongly. Georgia is leaning McCain but by a much smaller margin than it was with President Bush. The other states in play, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada. These are all states that Senator McCain should be doing very well in and yet he is struggling." In fact Maslyn says rural Americans seem to be as split as voters in the rest of country. Maslyn: "Part of the reason is that the issues tend to cut across party lines. If you look Senator Obama's issues and positions on taxes, on trade, there are some concerns there. If you look at Senator McCain's positions n energy there are some concerns there as well. Certainly overarching most of this is the economic crisis we are confronted with." Maslyn does think rural voters will be diligent in turning out to vote given not only the presidential race, but the fact all the U.S. House is up for election as well as a third of the U.S. Senate. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.