Erin Real looks at the most politically involved states in the U.S.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Aaron.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Real joints is not to take a look at how
much we are or not engaged with our neighbors and
friends when it comes to this political season. Aaron, welcome in, Thanks.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
For being here, Thank you for having me. Yeah, so
if you look at oh, go ahead, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I was going to ask you right out of the gate.
Are you is your family? I know you live right
outside of New York. Are you guys in a big
condo townhouse? Or you guys have a home with the
yard in the neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
We have a home with a yard.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Okay? Are you and your neighbors talking about this? I
mean they know obviously what you do. Does that ever
come up when you're out in the yard or in
your neighborhood talking with each other?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Okay, slain, but more so with my friends. I actually
one of the reasons I love my neighborhood is that,
like people are very civil and respectful, and they come
from all different walks of life and have all different opinions.
And if you see the law funds driving through my neighborhood,
there's plenty of camp and vans. There's plenty of Harrison walls,
like almost fifty to fifty, which I think is so

(00:59):
indicative of how this election is stacking up. Yeah, because
you're like, whoa, and we're in Connecticut like this, this
is fascinating to see. There's plenty of Republicans and plenty
of Democrats, but generally, for the most part, it's very
civil and it's one of the reasons I love living here.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
And I got to think that the yards that don't
have any signs or leaning towards Trump, and they just
don't want to mention it because it makes people mad.
I mean, you drive in our neighbor, it's the same thing.
You know, you've got both sets of signs and a
lot of yards you're vacant on it. But I have
discussions with you know, my next door neighbor. Yeah, we
talk about it all the time, and they're pro Trump.
But I see the signs, like, you know, across the

(01:35):
street from me. You know, my neighbors have a Walls
Hairs sign in their yard, and up the street another Trump,
and down the street there's some more Hairris Walls. So
it's kind of a mixed bag. So is this what
it's like in most places around the country. I knew
there's some new data out on this.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes, So political engagement actually comes down to education for
the most part. There's this like direct correlation. And if
you look at the most politically engaged states, they tend
to really emphasize civic education in schools and they remove
barriers for voter registration. So I'll give you the top
ten and we can discuss Maryland, Virginia, Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, California, Arizona,

(02:16):
New York. These are the most politically engaged states. And
if we just focus on Maryland, because it's number one,
so it's like Maryland, I thought it would be like
in Iowa or New Hampshire, somewhere where there's like a caucus.
I don't know why, I understand the ones around DC,
but I was so surprised to see that. But Maryland
requires civic education in school and they make it very
easy to register to vote. They have early voting, they

(02:37):
have no excuse ups in te voting, they have online
registration for voting, they have same day voting. And then
this one's fascinating. Not every state allows us to think
it's brilliant. They have young people as young as sixteen.
You can pre register to vote I don't know about you,
but if I was like a sixteen year old Naciviics classman,
you can't vote yet, you can't vote yet, we're going
to go through this, I would be like, oh cool.

(02:58):
Like I think that that engagement. And if you look
at the dot chart of the most politically engaged states,
it's not necessarily all blue or all red. It's the
states that have the highest almost GDP per capita ranking
and also education ranking that there's a direct correlation between

(03:20):
knowledge and in civic engagement.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I don't think they came to Alabama because I got
to tell you this one of the most politically engaged
states I've ever seen. I mean, people are always talking
about it here on both sides. I mean it's maybe it's.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Because it's interesting they don't vote as much. If you
look at like the percentage of the electorate who voted
in twenty twenty for the president, Alabama came in forty six,
which is fascinating. So they might have a discussion, but
they don't seem to come out. And I feel like
Alabama gets the wrong end of the stick in lot
of these but apparently number forty nine in terms of
civic engagement, and they looked at everything from voter registrations

(03:54):
or the percentage of people who voted in elections to
political contributions. There's so many different metrics.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
I think a lot of that has to do with
the fact that it is so red and people, you know,
have apathy in this state because they know it's going red,
you know, And there are blue dots obviously in every
state and vice versa, but Alabama is about as red
as it gets as far as you know which direction
they're going. In California, there's blue as you can potentially get,

(04:23):
I think, and there's no way you know they're going
to swing Republican in this race. So I think there
are some states that are very polarized in all of this,
and that may lead to some of the apathy there.
I agree with you. I hate seeing thirty thirty four
percent voter turnout for this election. We ought to be
up around eighty percent. And I know a lot of
people have trouble getting out and there may be reasons

(04:44):
they can't go vote, But I mean, we got to
crank it up and get more voters out there. And
I love the idea getting kids signed up and engaged
early in schools and things like that, to understand the process.
That's a pretty good idea, Aaron, thank you so much.