Voting in 1948

Report Outline
Potential Vote in the 1948 Election
Gap Between Potential and Actual Voting
Issues of 1948 and Size of the Vote
Special Focus

Potential Vote in the 1948 Election

Nearly 93 million citizens of the United States will be of age to vote in the 1948 presidential election. In the present campaign eligible voters are being urged by leaders of all parties and all factions to make maximum use of their democratic right to share in the choice of the next President.

President Truman has repeatedly declared that the future of the country depends upon success for the Democratic party, and that success for the Democratic party depends upon a record turnout in November. The Progressive and Socialist parties are calling upon independent voters to demonstrate wide support for their respective brands of liberalism by rolling up huge totals for their candidates. The Republican party, confident of an unbeatable margin for Dewey in most other parts of the country, is striving for the largest vote for its ticket in the South since the Hoover-Smith election of 20 years ago.

In 1948 there will be fewer impediments to exercise of the franchise than in 1944, when there was an actual decline in the number of votes cast for President. Most of the persons eligible to vote who were overseas with the armed forces four years ago have long since returned to the United States; many war workers who were without voting residence in 1944 have now lived long enough in one place to be qualified to register and vote.