We’re nonetheless in a post-primary lull earlier than the marketing campaign begins to warmth up — and earlier than Donald J. Trump goes on trial. Listed here are just a few fast notes to finish the week.

Joe Lieberman and the butterfly poll

Joe Lieberman, the previous Democratic senator, died this week at 82. He was Al Gore’s vice-presidential nominee in 2000, when the Gore-Lieberman ticket got here lower than 600 Florida votes away from profitable the White Home.

We’ll by no means know what would have occurred if the Supreme Court docket had allowed the recount to proceed. However I don’t suppose it’s at all times appreciated that we in all probability do know that Mr. Gore would have received Florida, and subsequently the presidency, if it weren’t for the infamous “butterfly ballot” in Palm Seaside County.

Should you don’t keep in mind — it has been some time — the butterfly poll was very uncommon. Candidates had been listed on either side of the poll, and voters solid a poll by punching a corresponding gap within the center. What made it so uncommon was that the ordering of the candidates on the poll didn’t have the identical logic because the corresponding punch gap: George W. Bush and Mr. Gore had been the primary two candidates listed on the left-hand facet, however they corresponded to the primary and third gap on the punch. The second punch corresponded with the primary candidate on the right-hand facet of the poll: the paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, operating as a Reform Occasion candidate.

After the election, many citizens from Palm Seaside claimed that they had inadvertently voted for Mr. Buchanan once they meant to vote for Mr. Gore. That is clear within the knowledge. Mr. Buchanan fared much better in Palm Seaside County than he did on the opposite facet of the county line. Certainly, Mr. Buchanan fared much better in Palm Seaside County than any politically or demographically comparable space within the nation.

You may see this sample fairly clearly on this map, courtesy of Matthew C. Isbell, a Democratic knowledge strategist and marketing consultant:

Mr. Buchanan additionally fared significantly better amongst Election Day voters — who used the butterfly poll — than amongst absentee voters, who didn’t, a sample not seen elsewhere within the state. Mr. Buchanan’s assist was additionally concentrated in Democratic areas, despite the fact that he was a really conservative candidate.

So far as the information goes, the case is a slam dunk: A minimum of 2,000 voters who meant to vote for Gore-Lieberman ended up voting for Mr. Buchanan. That will have simply been sufficient to determine the election.

No shift after State of the Union

Final week, I wrote that there have been just a few hints that perhaps, simply perhaps, President Biden’s numbers had inched up after the State of the Union.

Perhaps not. It has gotten more durable to see indicators of any Biden bump. Taken collectively, new polls from Fox, CNBC and Quinnipiac instructed that the presidential race was primarily unchanged, with Mr. Trump nonetheless holding a slender lead nationwide. The president’s approval score doesn’t appear discernibly greater, both.

As I wrote final week, that’s not essentially sudden, neither is it horrible information for Mr. Biden. The State of the Union doesn’t often make a lot of a distinction. And there’s a case the speech was nonetheless useful to him by quieting the considerations of elite Democrats about his capacity to run a vigorous marketing campaign.

That stated, that is actually not simply concerning the State of the Union. Most of the substances for a doable Biden comeback have been coming into place over the previous few months, from enhancing shopper sentiment to the sense of finality that the matchup could be Biden vs. Trump. There are various methods a Biden comeback might unfold, however a technique concerned these favorable circumstances translating into good points within the polls. The tip of the first season and the State of the Union had been believable alternatives for Mr. Biden to start to understand these good points. It hasn’t occurred but.

The subsequent alternative: the scheduled April 15 trial of Donald J. Trump on costs associated to paying hush cash to a porn star.

Reader Query: How massive will the turnout be in 2024?

Florida 2000 is a reminder that each vote will depend, however as I wrote earlier this week, many much less engaged voters will undoubtedly select to take a seat out this election. That led a number of of you to ask whether or not there have been any early clues about turnout this fall. Judy Pelowski, for example, requested:

It appears to me voter turnout would be the largest consider who wins the election this yr. With the quantity of dissatisfaction with the candidates this yr, do you have got any indications folks is not going to present up? In that case, what are the possibilities for low turnout?

It’s nonetheless just a little early to say a lot concerning the eventual turnout, however each quick-and-easy early indicator suggests the turnout could also be decrease than it was 4 years in the past. To take just a few examples:

The turnout numbers within the primaries and the 2022 midterms had been decrease than the corresponding figures from 4 years earlier than.
Fewer voters just like the candidates than 4 years in the past, the polling reveals.
Our early polling finds a smaller proportion of voters saying they’re “almost certain to vote” than at this stage 4 years in the past.

Now, the turnout in 2020 was very excessive for this era, so the turnout in November can drop and nonetheless be fairly excessive. However at this early stage, it’s laborious to make a very good case for turnout to match 2020.

Factor on the web

The Cook dinner Political Report’s Dave Wasserman dug in to newly digitized archives to focus on one Cook dinner evaluation of a pivotal Home race from each election yr from 1984 to 2002.

At only one or two paragraphs per election, it’s fairly fast and straightforward to digest, and it’s additionally a very good take a look at to see in the event you’re a real political junkie. Maybe better of all: One of many highlights occurs to be from Mr. Wasserman’s childhood house district (on the time, New Jersey’s twelfth District), and consequently options his personal private archive of marketing campaign materials from the 1998 marketing campaign.