Why voter turnout was about the same as '04: "Long lines at the polls were mostly Democrats."

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: November 7, 2008
Record turnout?
From CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider

(CNN) — Was there a record turnout in the election? Of Democrats, yes. Of all voters, not so much. We expected to see amazingly high voter turnout in this election. Was there?

Just over 208 million voting-age American citizens were eligible to vote this year. Just over 187 million were registered to vote. Edison Media Research estimates that a total of just over 130 million actually voted for President, either in person or by mail. That's over 62 percent of all Americans eligible to vote. That's two points higher than four years ago. 2008 continues a steady trend of higher voter turnout since 1996. But it's not exactly a quantum leap.

The Center for the Study of the American Elecotrate explains it this way: "A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower-than-predicted turnout. . . . The long lines at the polls were mostly populated by Democrats."

According to the exit polls, the African-American share of the vote did go up slightly, from 11 percent in 2004 to 13 percent in 2008. The white share declined a few points and Latinos stayed the same. The share of young voters went up by one percentage point. The share of new voters stayed the same.

But there was a noticeable shift by party. Democrats went from 37 percent of voters in 2004 to 40 percent this year. Independents also went up. Republicans declined from 37 to 32. All consistent with pre-election polls that showed Democrats excited and Republicans demoralized....

***

The story of this election was not so much a huge surge of new voters as it was a huge surge of Democratic enthusiasm. And Republican defeatism.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/07/record-turnout/

[Kahuna]

1. As I expected, a lot of repukes just stayed home. Good!

:)