(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The Country Vote: What Daily Yonder Staff Are Thinking About in Advance of Election Day [1]
['Staff', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Date: 2024-10-24
With Election Day around the corner, voters anxiously await the outcome of months of campaigning, debates, and public conversation.
In the newest episode of the Backroad Ballots podcast, we asked our staff what they are paying close attention to between now and the election. Host Olivia Weeks interviewed Daily Yonder publisher Dee Davis, and Daily Yonder reporters Claire Carlson and Sarah Melotte about election denial, how Democratic policy affects rural America, campaign communication, whether rural voters are truly over represented in the Electoral College and Senate, how Hurricane Helene could disrupt voting infrastructure in North Carolina, and more.
Dee Davis is the publisher of the Daily Yonder. (Photo courtesy of Davis)
Past episodes of Backroad Ballots have given listeners a nuanced look at who the rural voter is and what she wants by talking to rural organizers, academics, and journalists. Now, we turn to our staff who’ve been thinking about, and reporting on, the impending election for months.
Listen to the newest episode of Backroad Ballots: The Country Vote with the Daily Yonder, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen to things.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Dee Davis, publisher of the Daily Yonder, on how election campaigns amplify the stakes:
In these last few weeks, people are just getting beat to death. They’re just getting so much information and of course, it’s amped up in a way that it’s a bad election or the nation will perish. It’s “the world will perish if I vote the wrong way.”
Davis on politicians appearing relatable for rural people:
It’s the macro picture we mostly take away. Is that person reasonable? You’d speak to him if he was your next door neighbor, you know, would you lend him a cup of sugar? In some ways it’s not just about policy and it’s not just about positions, it’s just about what kind of neighbor would they be.
Claire Carlson, reporter for the Daily Yonder on Democratic policy for rural communities:
Tim Walz has a farming background. He grew up in Nebraska and he was able to speak really fluently about that, which I think is one of the reasons Kamala Harris chose him as her VP. He’s really able to speak to those issues. He talked a lot about broadband – they want to bring back the Affordable Connectivity Program which gives folks of a certain income level discounted internet access. And that’s hugely beneficial for people in rural areas where there’s not great broadband infrastructure still.
Claire Carlson is a reporter for the Daily Yonder. (Photo courtesy of Carlson)
Carlson on election denial and heightened partisanship in rural America:
People don’t split their ballots anymore. People used to [vote] Republican in the presidential election, but they would vote for a Democratic Senator, for example. People aren’t splitting their tickets as much anymore, which I think is a really good indication of how siloed these things have become. You see it at the very local level where county clerks actually are getting more threats from people who think that the election was stolen. And I think it’s been really bad for those communities because people are not viewing county clerks as their neighbors anymore, they’re viewing them as an evil force from the outside, even though county clerks have worked in those counties for decades.
Sarah Melotte, Daily Yonder data reporter on how rural America is not over represented in election politics, despite what some say:
According to the definitions of rural that geographers take seriously, like the Office of Management and Budget and the census definition of rural, none of these figures come out to make it look like rural has an unfair advantage in electoral politics and deciding elections.
There are blocs of voters, like voters of color, who don’t get as fair representation in the House of Representatives, for example, but all of these inequalities are not the fault of rural voters. And depending on how you look at it, there’s actually some evidence to suggest that rural people are actually underrepresented.
Sarah Melotte is the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. (Photo courtesy of Melotte)
Melotte, who lives in Bakersville, North Carolina, a town that was devastated by Hurricane Helene, on voting challenges in Western North Carolina:
Are people going to be able to get to the polls because of trees that still need to be picked out of the roads? Or are they going to be able to get the information they need to be able to vote because they don’t have internet? Because a lot of people still don’t have power, a lot of people still don’t have water. I have a bad feeling about how this is going to impact voter turnout. When you see areas that lack infrastructure or don’t have adequate access to broadband internet, are heavily impoverished, or economically distressed, there’s an impact on voter turnout.
For more on these topics, and more rural election conversation, listen to Backroad Ballots: The Country Vote with the Daily Yonder in the Rural Remix podcast feed, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Related
Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailyyonder.com/the-country-vote-what-daily-yonder-staff-are-thinking-about-in-advance-of-election-day/2024/10/24/
Published and (C) by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailyyonder/
