Most stayed home

The low turnout for the recent Missouri presidential primary again raises questions about the need for an exercise in democracy that cost the taxpayers of Missouri $3.7 million, including $39,000 for Cape Girardeau County.

Of the state's 3.6 million registered voters, 534,732 or 15 percent, went to the polls for the Feb. 3 presidential primary. Six out of seven people stayed home. The turnout in Cape Girardeau County was 3,797 people, just over 21 percent of the registered voters.

The heavy majority of those who voted in Missouri were Democrats, of course, since President George W. Bush has no real competition for the Republican nomination. Certainly some Republicans voted in the Democratic primary in an attempt to sway the outcome.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry commanded just over 50 percent of the vote on the Democratic site, with U.S. Sen. John Edwards finishing second with 24.7 percent and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean third with 8.7 percent of the vote.

If U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of St. Louis hadn't gotten out of the race just before the primary, the turnout almost certainly would have been lower. Gephardt's withdrawal put the state back in play for the Democratic candidates, who still spent relatively little time here. Edwards had a do-or-die commitment to winning in South Carolina, the state where he was born, and Arizona competed with Missouri for attention because it has as many delegates.

A debate scheduled in St. Louis the night before the primary was canceled due to scheduling conflicts, another way of saying the candidates had something more important to do.

Media attention is one of the reasons states want to be at the front-loaded end of the primary season. Missouri received relatively little.

Missouri has held presidential primaries only three times in its history: 1988, 2000 and 2004. Caucuses, a sometimes messy grassroots process, have otherwise decided who received the state's delegates.

Missouri is a bellwether state in most presidential elections, one that definitely will play an important role in deciding the winner of the 2004 presidential election. But this primary election left most of its registered voters sitting on the couch.