The Socialist Vote in 1932

Report Outline
Forecasts of “Two Million Socialist Votes”
The Socialist Vote and Doubtful States in 1932
Socialist Party Platforms of 1932 and 1912
Marxian Vs. Revisionist Socialism
The Socialist Movement in United States
Reasons for Socialist Weakness in United States
The Communists in the 1932 Campaign
Special Focus

Forecasts of “Two Million Socialist Votes”

Socialist Ballots in the Literary Digest Poll

The issue of the Literary Digest dated October 22, 1932, will give the following totals—the first to cover all 48 states—of the ballots in its 1932 presidential poll to date:

In the final tabulation of ballots in the Literary Digest poll of 1928, Thomas, the Socialist presidential candidate in that year also, received 0.6 per cent of the total. His actual vote in the election of 1928 was 267,420, amounting to 0.7 per cent of the 36,879,414 votes cast. The increase of 0.1 point in the proportion of the votes actually cast for Thomas in 1928 over the proportion of the ballots for him in the 1928 Literary Digest poll may be due to the fact that the list of names circularized in the poll is made up primarily of automobile owners and telephone subscribers and is probably slightly under-representative of the groups inclined to vote the Socialist ticket.

The Literary Digest poll of 1928 included returns from all the states, whereas the Socialist presidential ticket was not upon the ballots, and received no votes which were recorded, in the following six states:—Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont. Only 211 ballots were cast for Thomas in the poll from those states, and exclusion of them would not have reduced Thomas's proportion in the poll below 0.6 per cent, The Socialist ticket will not appear upon the 1932 ballots, according to information from the Socialist Party National Campaign Committee, in Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada and Florida, and possibly Oklahoma, although the names of the Socialist candidates for president and vice-president may be written in upon the ballots in the first two of these states.