Click Here For If voters paid attention, maybe they'd never make up their minds

Reason: Knowledge Problems: If voters paid attention, maybe they'd never make up their minds: "Somin reviews survey data from the 1950s on that indicate 'most individual voters are abysmally ignorant of even very basic political information.' Furthermore, 'a relatively stable level of extreme ignorance has persisted' despite rising education levels and increased availability of information.

How extreme? A survey conducted last April, Somin notes, found that 70 percent of Americans did not know about the ballyhooed, budget-busting Medicare drug benefit, 'the largest new federal entitlement in decades, and arguably the most important piece of domestic legislation adopted during the administration of George W. Bush.' In a February survey, more than 60 percent of respondents did not realize increases in domestic spending under Bush have contributed substantially to skyrocketing federal budget deficits.

A month and a half after Congress passed the 'partial birth' abortion ban, 65 percent of survey respondents did not know about it. As of April, 58 percent admitted to knowing 'not much' or 'nothing' about the PATRIOT Act. "