Title: Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History | Pew Research Center
Headings: Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History
Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History
I. Overview
Comparing the Census Bureau’s Turnout Estimate with the Reported Vote Tally
About this Report
A Note on Terminology
Facts are more important than ever

Content: Lopez, 2008; Taylor and Fry, 2007) and Latino public opinion about the election and the candidates ( Lopez and Minushkin, 2008 ). The data for this report are derived from the November Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey of about 55,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The November Voting and Registration Supplement is one of the richest sources available of information about the characteristics of voters. It is conducted after Election Day and relies on survey respondent self-reports of voting and voter registration. Comparing the Census Bureau’s Turnout Estimate with the Reported Vote Tally
The Census Bureau’s biannual Current Population Survey November Voting and Registration Supplement is the most comprehensive data source available for examining the demographic composition of the electorate in federal elections. However, because it relies on post-election self-reporting by survey respondents in some 55,000 households, these weighted CPS estimates of turnout never match up precisely with the actual number of votes tallied in the 50 states. According to the CPS, an estimated 131.1 million U.S. citizens voted in the 2008 presidential election – slightly less than the 131.3 million votes cast for president, as reported by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate ( Gans, 2008) and other sources ( McDonald, 2009 ). This is the first time since the Census Bureau began taking a post-election survey in 1964 that its estimate is smaller than the number of votes tallied by the states.