Turnout , or Turndown?
Todd Culbertson
Nov 07, 2008
The 2008 campaign was the most exciting in generations. Rallies drew huge crowds. The press daily reported surges in registration. Almost everyone expected records, not only in raw votes but in turnout rates. On the morning after the election, something funny happened. I looked at Barack Obama’s popular vote and it struck me as familiar. His total was about what George Bush had received four years before. During the next years days late counts pushed the vote higher, but it is now clear that 2008 did not produce the expected turnout bonanza. The numbers and percentages will go up but, apparently, only by a point or two. Some analysts, yours truly included, suspect many Republicans stayed home (or went fishing, to use the political cliche). The youth vote may have been overestimated as well. This was, after all, the third or fourth election in recent decades in which America’s young people were going to storm the ramparts. And never discount hype. Our age overstates everything (as this statement itself suggests). For the final answer we will await wisdom greater than ours.
Guessperts predicted a significant increase in voter turnout on Nov 4. The hard numbers did not add up.
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Simmer—
There you go again ... bringing up that “race thing.“ Will you ever get over it? I don’t care if Obama was blue with white polka dots. Obama ran a great campaign, the superior campaign, and was elected not BECAUSE he is black, but in spite of it.
Obama is smart. It is about time that our nation has a president who knows the difference between being “smart” and being a “smartass.“
I know a lot of senior citizens who chose to vote early because they didn’t want to risk NOT BEING ABLE TO VOTE AT ALL.
GetRealRichmond
Nov. 10, 2008 at 02:16 AM
Regardless of the amounts, the totals and percentages were an increase over previous elections. In particular the black vote was enhanced by Obama’s run. He would not have won without the percentage being in the 90+ range. Key precincts determined many area totals, such as Henrico in the East.
The US needs to re-think voter registration. Many register by dubious means, even without identification, pay no taxes, own no property, etc. In other words they have no vested interest in who wins, thus it is left to the superficial such as race.
Absentee balloting has reached a point of uncontrolled ridiculousness. Originally intended for those with a valid excuse, such as military service, it now is for the anyone who does not feel like waiting until November.
Simmertime
Nov. 9, 2008 at 03:50 PM