Experts: Voter fatigue expected from heavy political messaging in Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Election Day is just 18 days away and big names from both sides of the ticket are honing in on southern Arizona more than ever.

However, such an influx of political messaging is increasing the risk of voter fatigue.

“I’ve talked to people all the time who say they’re sick of it and even, you know, when I opened my mailbox, I’m flooded with the flyers from both campaigns. I think a lot of people have that experience,” said University of Arizona Political Science Professor Samara Klar.

It’s hard not to notice campaign ads in Arizona. A fact that can feel overwhelming to residents, but political analysts said it was meant to be that way.

“Arizona is currently projected the second-highest broadcast spending of any state in the country, and arguably, Arizonans are going to see more political ads than anyone else in the USA,” said Noble Predictive Insights CEO Mike Noble.

Outside of the political ads, southern Arizona has also seen both presidential and vice-presidential candidates stop in town over the past few weeks.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are all set to visit the state in the coming days.

While it might seem like overkill experts said these campaigns aren’t necessarily worried about that.

“From the perspective of the campaigns, there is not a lot of risk in oversaturating voters with the message. The risk is not reaching people. So, if somebody feels fatigue, does that make them less likely to vote? Probably not,” Klar said.

It puts a lot of pressure on one state which has trickled down to the mindset of voters. A 2024 Pew poll found 65% of U.S. adults feel exhausted by politics.

With the presidential race in Arizona only being decided by 10,000 votes last election, there’s an extra focus on the state and that has created even more fatigue for residents this year.

“We noticed that folks are, (hitting) the saturation level, and we’re clearly at it, because we’ve never received so much (messaging),” Noble said.

Despite the stress many feel on the big-ticket politics, experts said the biggest impact could be on local races and ballot measures, which could be drowned out by a historic election year.

“The problem is, if you’re a smaller race running for state (legislator) or some justice level, so these more local races, the problem is it’s really hard to break through because it’s so darn noisy,” Noble said.

The noise is not expected to slow down anytime soon as Obama will be in Tucson Friday. 13 News’ J.D. Wallace will be at the event and bring you more starting at 3 p.m. You can watch his reporting live at www.kold.com/live

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