It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Swing vote. (Discuss)

A swing voter or floating voter is a voter who may not be affiliated with a particular political party (independents) or who will vote across party lines. Examples include "Reagan Democrats" who voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Or the "Clinton Conservative," also known as Republican's who voted for the moderate President, in comparison to Reagan's Democrats. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Swing vote is a term used to describe a vote that may go to any of a number of candidates in an election. ... For the Finno-Ugric people, see Votes. ... A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... President Ronald Reagan. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan, (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

While the swing voter is ostensibly the target of most political activity during elections, in countries without compulsory voting the political parties know that the shift from one party to another is dependent only to a small extent on swing voters. Much more important than the swing voter is the ability of one party in comparison to another in getting out its core support. As people become disillusioned with their favoured party, they are more likely to abstain than switch.

However, in the 24 countries with compulsory voting, voter turnout is often already very close to 100%, so if the major parties are roughly balanced in popularity, swing voters can have a marked influence on the outcome. Compulsory voting is a practice that requires citizens to vote in elections or to attend a polling place and get their name crossed off the electoral roll. ...

The 2004 US presidential election was notable for the extent to which the Bush campaign was successful in getting out its vote. Republican strategists argued that it would be a mistake to play for the centre ground, i.e. swing voters, and that they needed to put all their effort into energising their natural support. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States and a former Governor of the State of Texas. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party [1]), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ...

See also Swing (politics). Swing in a British political context is a mathematical calculation which allows the results of two constituencies to be compared. ...