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Democrats and the media need to settle down about the voting numbers

When covering the Republican Party this primary season, the media has typically gone in one direction - Donald Trump. When covering the Democratic Party, however, the focus has largely been on the low voter turnout, and whether or not it could be a bad sign for the party come November. Some Democrats have even echoed these sentiments. While it's hypothetically possible that the Democratic Party could have a poor showing in the general election, it's much too early to make such a prediction, or to conclude the low primary voter turnout will in any way be indicative of the turnout come November.

Here are several reasons why Democrats and the media alike should settle down on the matter:

- At the parties' peak, the GOP had 17 candidates from which to choose, while Democrats had 6

- Due to the high number of candidates, the GOP struggled to find a true frontrunner, while Hillary Clinton was always the Democratic frontrunner

- Unless it's the general election, GOPers tend to vote at higher rates than Democrats

- The Donald Trump factor: He's an incredibly divisive figure, who people tend to have a love/hate relationship with, so this has resulted in a number of proponents and opponents of Trump's candidacy and message

- This has also impacted Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents, some of whom have crossed over in open primaries to vote for or against Trump, quite possibly in an attempt to potentially impact the general election

- According to RealClearPolitics, Democrats have a +1.0 advantage over Republicans in the 2016 generic congressional vote

- According to Gallup, Democrats hold a 3-point advantage over Republicans when it comes to registered voters, 29% to 26%, respectively

- President Obama's approval numbers are the best they've been in a while, as outside of what appears to be an aberration poll, his last six polling results have averaged out to 48.5% approval, 47.3% disapproval (net +1.2%)

- In their two most recent polls, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by an average of 6.5%

- No recent polls have been released of a hypothetical Clinton/Cruz general election match-up, but the most recent such poll shows Clinton trailing by 1%

So both Democrats and the media need to calm down about the voter turnout numbers to this point in primary season. We're not going to garner a very clear picture of November's election until the two parties' nominees are officially announced and polling numbers start pouring in from all parts of the country. So, as Aaron Rodgers said a couple seasons ago, everyone needs to r-e-l-a-x.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/05/donald-trump-has-not-brought-millions-and-millions-of-people-to-the-republican-party/?postshare=3381457186957787&tid=ss_tw

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