Title: 2008 Voter Turnout - FactCheck.org
Headings: 2008 Voter Turnout
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2008 Voter Turnout
What Happened to All That Record-Turnout Hype?
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Content: 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. “ Many people were fooled (including this student of politics although less so than many others) by this year’s increase in registration (more than 10 million added to the rolls), citizens’ willingness to stand for hours even in inclement weather to vote early, the likely rise in youth and African American voting, and the extensive grassroots organizing network of the Obama campaign into believing that turnout would be substantially higher than in 2004. But 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.” As for the youth vote, Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) estimates that 52 percent to 53 percent of eligible voters under the age of 30 went to the polls in 2008. That’s up from 48 percent in 2004. CIRCLE’s figures are based on CSAE’s projections, exit poll data and Census population numbers.