Gallup: American enthusiasm about voting ‘as low as we’ve seen it in our history of measuring’

Pennsylvania voters go to the polls Tuesday. The Keystone State is one of several states holding elections this month, all leading up to the November mid-term balloting. 

We chat with Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, to gauge public opinion. Listen to the interview above.

New evidence shows that Americans are very unenthusiastic about voting this year. Engagement is at its lowest point in recent history. Republicans, however, remain more enthusiastic than Democrats. One reason may be that the number of Americans who say that most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected, or that their own member deserve to be re-elected, is near a record low.

With a modest rise, President Obama’s job approval rating begins to diverge from where George W. Bush was at this point in the sixth year of his presidency. This could affect the midterm elections. (But both Bush and Obama are well below where Clinton and Reagan were in May of their sixth years in office.)

The American Association for Public Opinion Research, the world’s largest group of professional pollsters and survey researchers, holds its annual conference in Anaheim, California, this weekend. Who attends? What are the main issues and concerns that will be discussed? What are the major issues facing pollsters today?