With Election Day now under two weeks away, broadcast political ads, online messages, and mailbox postcards will keep coming. It’s likely many of those ads will be negative.
Eastern Kentucky University Associate Professor of Government Anne Cizmar says candidates may be relying even more on attack ads due to uncertainties about outcomes because of coronavirus and varying voting methods. “And so I think for all these reasons it’s really an atypical election and whenever there is that much uncertainty, then that means Candidates feel really I think uncertain as well. And then the strategy leads to negative ads because negative ads tend to be the ones most memorable for voters,” said Cizmar.
Cizmar added there is sometimes the concern that an avalanche of negative political advertising can drive down turnout. Still, Cizmar said expect an even heavier surge of political advertisements between now and the traditional Election Day of November third.
Here's more with EKU Associate Professor of Government Anne Cizmar:
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