If you count non-voters, Iraq vote loses

Add the LaCrosse Tribune to the list of those trying to twist the results of last week's referenda on the war in Iraq.

Twenty-four Wisconsin communities, of different sizes and political makeup, spread across the state from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, voted to bring US troops home. Eight other communuties voted against the question.

The pro-war, pro-Bush crowd has done everything it can to suggest that those results don't count. Not enough people voted, they say. The wrong communities voted. If you don't count the liberals, the pro-war vote won. And on and on.

The Tribune has taken it to a new level. They count non-voters who don't live in the city where the referendum was held.

In the city of LaCrosse, voters approved the troop pullout, 3,614 to 2,983, or 54.8 percent to 45.2 percent.

The Tribune's first reaction was a story suggesting that a disproportionate number of students and nuns had voted. Really. I'm not inventing it. Here's the link.

Now the newspaper has commissioned a poll by the UW-LaCrosse political science department to ask people in all of LaCrosse County, not just the city, for their opinions on the war. The results:

Across the county, however, 51.5 percent of the 434 residents surveyed said they would vote “no” to bringing home troops in such a referendum, to 36.3 percent who support a pullout. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Both voters and non-voters were surveyed. “We wanted to get a broader-based opinion, not just voters’ opinions,” said UW-L political science professor Joe Heim.

The difference between the survey and election results stems from the difference in demographics between the city and suburbs, Heim said.

“Generally people who are more likely to be Republican, conservative and that have a bit better income are a little more likely to be in the suburbs — and they are more likely to vote ‘no’ to troop withdrawal.”

Well, duh.

Counting non-voters is a fair way to find out public opinion on an issue. But it's a pretty poor way to try to determine how an election would come out.

It's a cliche in politics to say that "Polls don't vote." It's usually something you'll hear from a candidate who's behind in the polls. But it is certainly apropos in this instance.

If pro-war people in LaCrosse County want a recount, why not get the county board to put it to a county-wide referendum in November, when turnout will be high? But, even then, the only votes that count would be from those who bother to go to the polls. And there could be a lot of nuns and students again.

There's gotta be a better way than this democracy stuff. Thank God the President has war powers to do whatever he wants. He doesn't even have to obey the law, let alone listen to public opinion.