Public Event Speech

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Public Speech Story
November 11, 2010
By Dalton Hammonds

A political science professor said Wednesday in front of Marshall University students that participation is a vital part of any election.
George Davis told members of his political science class to get out and participate in both mid-term and general elections.
“It’s important for younger voters to get out and vote because you guys [students] are the ones who will be choosing leaders of this country for years to come.”
Davis, who is originally from New York, told his students that there are two main types of voters, spectators and gladiators.
A spectator, Davis said, is someone who usually votes, who might follow the issues on the news, but who do very little else.
“They [spectators] don’t make phone calls for candidates, they don’t get involved in campaigns and they don’t do the things that make campaigns happen. The majority of Americans are spectators,” Davis said.
Gladiators, Davis said, are the people who are most engaged in the political process.
“These are the people make campaigns run. They go door to door and try to get you to vote for the issue or candidate that they support,” Davis said.
Davis said that other factors determined the likelihood of voter participation.
“Ethnicity, level of education and gender are things that have to be looked at when finding out how likely a registered voter will actually get out and get to the polls,” Davis said.
Davis gave reference to a George Mason University study that projected only 37% of registered voters cast their ballot last Tuesday in the general election.
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