WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Women have overtaken NASCAR dads and soccer moms as the most sought-after group of potential voters in November's presidential election, representing a potential base of millions of voters looking for change.
Two different groups -- single women and women swing voters -- have emerged as the possible deciding population in what is expected to be a razor-thin election margin.
"Single women, women on their own, are simply the single largest source of potential voters, and even more importantly, potential Democratic voters," said Ann Lewis, national chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Women's Vote Center.
"We're talking about 22 million women who did not vote in 2000, in a population that voted Democratic by a 30-point margin in 2000, and seems likely from what the polls tell us to do so again in 2004."
Likewise, a poll released by the progressive organization EMILY'S List said that women swing voters -- those who don't consistently vote according to party affiliation -- constitute 30 percent of women voters and express greater dissatisfaction with the way things are going than either men or the population at large.
"No one's really happy, but the women swing voters are the most unhappy about the direction of the country," EMILY's List's national political director, Karen M. White, told United Press International. EMILY's list works to elect pro-abortion rights Democratic women to office.
The study, based on surveys and focus-group sessions, found that fewer than four in 10 respondents could offer an example of a positive development in the country, while 69 percent could offer negative examples.
Democrats have been angling to bring in this population, which despite its diversities focuses on a key set of agenda issues -- healthcare, economy, education and retirement -- with positions that fall closely under the Democratic Party's stances.
Republicans, however, dispute Democrats' hold over this population. Scott Stanzel, spokesman for President Bush's re-election campaign, said his party would work to win these voters.
"We know that this election will be close, potentially as close as 2000, so every single vote is important. We're actively reaching out to voters, women voters throughout the country," he told UPI.
"Candidates are now realizing that they ignore this group of voters really at their peril," said Page Gardner, co-founder of the non-partisan voter-mobilization organization Women's Voices. Women Vote.
The key to addressing this group, Gardner and the EMILY's List study found, is to focus on their key issues. Although Democrats are the obvious place to look, Stanzel argues that Bush's policies address the issues of core importance to women: national security, safety, economic growth, healthcare and education.
Women are starting businesses twice as rapidly as men, and the president's economic policies, including his tax cuts, would be just as important for women entrepreneurs as men.
"It's certainly a top priority of female business owners to make the president's tax cuts permanent," he said.
Stanzel also touted Bush's education policies, which he said "made sure all children had a chance to learn and succeed and realize their dreams, and through the historic No Child Left Behind Act we're dedicating more resources than at any other time in history."
However, the president's policies have not positively affected the polls of this demographic. The EMILY's List study found Bush suffers from a 17-point gender gap. It also found that 53 percent of swing-voter respondents said they were dissatisfied with the direction of the country, compared to the about 30 percent who said they were satisfied.
Unlike other voting contingents, women swing voters remain focused on their key set of issues, a trend that Gardner also said she found among single women. These issues remain consistent despite obvious differences in age, race and economic income, she said.
"The more I did the research, the more it was clear that there was a big piece of the puzzle that no one had looked at and systematically targeted," Gardner told UPI.
Hispanics, who constitute 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, have long been identified as a significant swing vote, but Gardner said the number of single women in the country equals the populations of black, Hispanic and Jewish Americans combined.
The main difficulty in targeting these groups is awareness. Women voters tend to vote in a lower proportion to their part of the population, in large part because they don't feel engaged in or educated about the political process.
"They often feel short of time and short of information," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. She added that there were real barriers to getting single women to the polls.
The first step, Lake said, was to make voting more convenient for them. Single women in states that have mail-in ballots are more likely to vote than their in-person counterparts.
The second important piece is to have organizations reach out to them. "That says to these voters that we do care, we want to help you, we want to give you the information you need," Lake said.
Several organizations seek to gain a 2-percent increase in voting among single women, increasing the Democratic vote beyond the margin of victory in several states, she said.
There is no sense, however, of how effective these mobilization efforts will be. "It's pretty new still" to target single women, said Lake.
But Gardner said that among the focus groups she has worked with, women are beginning to get a sense of their potential power.
When single women are told 22 million of them did not vote in 2000, "a light bulb goes off and they understand their collective power and they know they can have an impact on the elections, but more importantly the issue agenda."
"When they understand their collective power to bring about change, it's very motivational."
--
(Please send comments to [email protected].)
