FactCheck.org: Is it true that 36 percent to 37 percent of eligible voters failed to vote in the recent presidential election?The GOP voters stayed home, the Democrats came out, and we had a historic win with a small increase in overall turnout which was, still, high by historic standards.
... Minnesota ... had the highest voter turnout, at 77.8 percent. Hawaii and West Virginia are tied for the lowest turnout, with 50.6 percent each...
... Before Americans went to the polls on November 4, much was made in media reports about record levels of voter registration and high enthusiasm levels among the electorate. And while the 61.6 percent turnout number doesn't seem that impressive – in 2004, after all, 60.1 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot for the highest office – it is the highest turnout in the U.S. in decades. As the CSAE report says, "If the rate of voting exceeds 61.0 percent of eligibles, turnout will have been the highest since 1964."
But why was it not even higher? Republican turnout, according to CSAE, dropped, while Democrats voted in higher numbers. The percentage of those voting for the Republican presidential ticket dropped by 1.3 percentage points and those voting for the Democratic ticket went up by 2.6 percentage points from 2004. Curtis Gans, the center's director, said he, too, thought even more Americans would vote in 2008. "... we failed to realize that the registration increase was driven by Democratic and independent registration and that the long lines at the polls were mostly populated by Democrats...
Incidentally, I'm fine with a 60% turnout. As best I can tell about 40% of Americans have no idea what's going on, and far too many of them vote for people like Cheney/Bush. I'd rather they stayed home ...
Update 1/11/09: As noted in comments, MN has a special advantage -- we're not on the west coast. After PA was called west coast voting really fell off. So my comparison is a bit unfair ...
1 comment:
I worked the polls in California. As soon as Pennsylvania was called, it stopped dead. Nobody coming in, except a few stragglers who wanted to vote for Obama. One older white gentleman guy had checked our voter roles several times and then gone to get his black friend to make sure he voted -- didn't want him to miss it. The most touching were the black families coming in with their kids, telling them how historic their vote was, wanting to make sure the kids knew.
I was sad that the early call discourage people who otherwise might have voted, though.
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