With very little actual election-law news in this 24-hour news cycle, I am thinking about the downside of emphasizing our democratic dismay. We should not ignore the many risks to our electoral system. But should we also be worried that in we choosing to focus on risk, we are driving voters away from politics and democracy? An AP-NORC poll finds that “[r]oughly 3 in 4 American adults believe the upcoming presidential election is vital to the future of U.S. democracy.” Two sub-find findings were particularly intriguing to me:

“About 2 in 10 Americans say democracy in the U.S. is strong enough to withstand the outcome of the election no matter who wins, while another 2 in 10 believe democracy is already so seriously broken that the outcome doesn’t matter.”

So many questions, are these the 20% who vote fairly regularly but despise people like us (i.e., people who read and write for this blog)? In other words, are these the view of people who are just plain tired of talking about politics all the time. Whoever they are, I am pretty sure these are the folks the Harris-Walz campaign has decided are their swing voters.

About half of adults 45 and older say the outcome of the election is extremely important for the future of democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 adults under 45.

Some readers will likely take from this that young voters are naive. But maybe what those 6/10 need is to have their optimism reinforced by stories of democratic successes–stories that are also plentiful, even if not always appropriate for an Election Law Blog.