The Jewish/Chasidic Bloc Vote

The reasons the Jewish “bloc vote” is so successful is several-fold:

1) It is entirely legal and in a democratic system must always remains so, by definition.

2) It is utilized by highly disciplined voters, generally Chasidic groups where the laymen follow the directions of their communal leadership.

3) The bloc vote is operated in a bipartisan fashion. It can easily choose candidates from either political party, and it can even switch candidates at the last minute in an election (as actually happened in a recent upstate Congressional race.) This insures no candidate can take the bloc vote for granted.

4) It discusses the issues, needs, and aspirations of the community with the candidates quietly. There are no press releases. This helps insure that the opposing candidate cannot take advantage of the fact that his opponent “made a deal” with the bloc leaders. There simply is no official “deal”, just a handshake understanding of each others needs. There is no quid pro quo. And the bloc’s selected candidate is very cognizant that if he stabs the community in the back, his reelection prospects are toast.

5) Considering the block votes relatively strong electoral strength, even though insufficient on its own to carry the candidate to victory, and the non-bloc votes natural partisan divide (many voters always vote their party) and the other aforementioned reasons, all give the bloc voters a much stronger influence than otherwise attainable.

For these reasons the bloc voting system works and its success cannot be broken by its opponents.