Race in Local Politics: The Rochdale Central Ward Election of 1968

A pre-election survey among 51 electors in Rochdale Central Ward, England, was carried out via interviews & open-ended questions in order to assess electors' att's at the climax of the May 1968 local election campaign. The campaign was characterized by a straight fight between a Liberal & a Conservative. The Liberal, who happened to be a Pakistani, polled 429 votes; the Conservative, who defeated him by a majority of 717 votes was a white man. It is hyp'ed that for the voters the color of the candidates skins was more important than their pol'al platform. The pre-election survey showed that at least 60% of the electorate were aware that the Liberal candidate was an immigrant; this group was also generally better informed about the election, less undecided about the issues & more insistent that they would vote. The press, in particular the Rochdale observer, strongly criticized the Liberals' choice of candidate under f reference to the candidate's racial & ethnic origin. The Liberals said they were fighting for a Liberal who just happened to be a Pakistani, although they were trying to please the minority groupings. This put them in an exposed position, & at times the Liberal campaign seemed seemed to split in two. It did not know where all the prospective Liberal voters in the ward lived; it had a shortage of funds; & in addition the candidate was away on a business trip abroad for nearly a week in the middle of the campaign. An election survey was undertaken at the polling stations among 648 persons, producing 404 useable responses. Of these 314 voted Conservative & 90 Liberal. 80 of those who voted Liberal were interviewed; 65 said they had changed from Conservative to Liberal. The majority were Asian. 126 R's changed from Liberal to Conservative; the most f reason given for changing was 'race.' The extent to which there was an aversion to vote for a colored candidate appears considerable. Thus the hypothesis seems supported. 1 Table. M. Maxfield.