Antedating of "Swing Voter"

[Fred Shapiro]

This was "Word of the Year" for 1964, according to Allan Metcalf's book,
America in So Many Words.


swing voter (OED 1966)

1962 _N.Y. Times_ 12 Nov. 25 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  Upon
analysis it would appear that only 1,000,000 voters out of the nearly
5,800,000 who went to the polls in New York last Tuesday decided the
outcome.  These were the so-called independent or swing voters who bounced
across voting machines in a pattern similar to that of a small boy on a
pogo stick.


Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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