By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — When you're not supposed to shake hands with anyone and all but family are to social distance from babies, how do you campaign? A political scientist from the University of Kansas says it will be interesting to see candidates approach this issue.
"Particularly after, like the 1960s, with more and more homes having television, a lot of campaigns at all levels did less face to face campaigning," said Patrick Miller. "It really has been coming back in the last 15 to 20 years, as, I think campaigns have appreciated that face to face campaigning is the most effective form of campaigning to really get a voter's attention."
Right now, there's still a lot of time between now and when people vote, even if candidates are part of a primary in August.
"These things do take time to pan out," Miller said. "We see that, for example, with Presidential approval where, over the course of a crisis, Presidential approval can fluctuate a great deal up or down, but then eventually the public settles in to its perception of how that's been handled. Really, I think it's where we're going to be down the road and not necessarily where we are right now."
As the rest of society adapts to social distancing in education, educating voters may have to work similarly.
"Campaigns are just going to have to adapt at least in the short term to this reality," Miller said. "They need to use alternative forms to reach voters, even if those forms of communication might not be as effective."
Most polling now is done on the phone or the internet, so there's at least a chance for the data there to be worthwhile, once we've been in the crisis long enough to get some.