Monday, November 16, 2015

Techies Don't Vote

A libertarian streak?

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez writes:
Last week, 186,863 San Franciscan ballots were tallied, many I’d wager cast by those worried about our city. Tech workers did not join them, early data shows.

“I can promise you [tech workers] had no effect — turnout was abysmal,” said Corey Cook, a former University of San Francisco politics professor and political analyst.

“Turnout in the growing tech areas,” he told me, “is close to zero.”

Last election (2014), Cook sliced and diced the numbers to search for likely tech worker voters: Newly registered, 22-34 years old, and within a quarter mile of registered commuter shuttle (“Google Bus”) stops. Tech didn’t vote then, either.

Most of the data pollsters have from the Department of Elections is not quite complete — but it isn’t too early to make calls from, either.

“Where are the tech voters from SoMa? Oh right, nowhere,” tweeted prominent TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler, on Election Day.

  -RW

2 comments:

  1. This is a start. If more people drop out of the political process the division between takers who vote and producers who don't will become more visible. And this could lead to more conflict and physical confrontation. This will lead to hardships and a decline in the quality of life but it is the only road to freedom.

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  2. In my experience with tech guys ideological wise tech tends to be a mix ideological bag. Obviously the big liberal known ones (Zuckerberg, Gates, etc), I would guess libertarian ones would be those who have developed apps that focus on Bitcoin, copblocking and precious metals and for those who don't know the neoreactionary movement founder Mencius Moldbug is in the tech industry.

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