How prepared are you for next week's
Most know who's running for president, but only a few knew about the hotly contested U.S. Senate race. When you get down to all the judges, commissioners and local races, forget about it.
"I voted for a lot of names like George, because that's my uncle," said one woman already cast an early ballot.
Another says it’s all a guessing game for him, "you just kind of eeny, meeny, miny, mo it."
Harvey Kronberg at the Quorum Report is not surprised, he says many voters use name recognition, whether they know the candidate or not.
"We look for clues, that's the best we can do," says Kronberg. "Even political sophisticates, or combatants as I like to call us, when you get far down the ballot and you're talking about family law, you're flying blind."
For some, it’s the political ads that caught their attention.
"David Dewhurst, I've seen his ads, they make him look good," said a 21-year-old who plans to skip the primary, but vote in the general election.
Kronberg says primaries are really about emotion, not so much the substance.
"People turn out typically because either they want to support a candidate or fire somebody," he says. "Of course in this election, the Republican primary is where most of the energy is, its all about Barack Obama whether or not the office you're running for has anything to do with federal politics."
Early voting runs through this weekend, the primary election next Tuesday.
