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Turnout shaping up to be lower than 2008 (and 2004)
AP (Yahoo News) ^ | 11/7/12 | Josh Lederman

Posted on 11/07/2012 6:01:47 AM PST by RightGeek

A drop in voter turnout in Tuesday's election didn't keep President Barack Obama from winning a second term in the White House.

Preliminary figures suggest fewer people voted this year than four years ago, when voters shattered turnout records as they elected Obama to his first term.

In most states, the numbers are shaping up to be even lower than in 2004, said Curtis Gans, the director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Still, the full picture may not be known for weeks, because much of the counting takes place after Election Day.

"By and large, people didn't show up," Gans said.

In Texas, turnout for the presidential race dropped almost 11 percent from 2008. Vermont and South Carolina saw declines that were almost as large. The drop-off was more than 7 percent in Maryland, where voters approved a ballot measure allowing gay marriage.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press figures showed more than 117 million people had voted in the White House race, but that number will go up as more votes are counted. In 2008, 131 million people voted, according to the Federal Election Commission.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: election; turnout; voters
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To: mgist

But but..............the biased press says it’s TRUE! You believe them....................don’t you?


21 posted on 11/07/2012 6:16:58 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (My faith and politics cannot be separated)
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To: ubaldus

I think you are right and it was the conservatives who stayed home. His Excellency’s vote was far less than it was in 08 while the RR vote was somewhat less than McLames. Issues were the same so it was not issue oriented. Voter apathy stonger among conservatives perhaps because they feel no matter which, it is 4 years of the same or similar...not the fork in the road candidate we needed. Now would the RINOs have voted for the enigma? I doubt it so IMO had the conservatives turned out as strong as 08 when admittedly their vote was down there also, we would have had a different outcome.


22 posted on 11/07/2012 6:17:28 AM PST by Mouton (Voting is an opiate of the electorate. Nothing changes no matter who wins..)
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To: mgist

The purists sat out the election.


23 posted on 11/07/2012 6:18:30 AM PST by joesbucks
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To: headstamp 2
Voter alienation. They figure they can’t change anything anymore so don’t bother voting.

A direct result of John Boehner and his blithering ineffectiveness.


24 posted on 11/07/2012 6:19:18 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: mgist

Where you been? Many Freepers have been telling this board for months that we were staying home if Romney was the nominee.

Now you’re all surprised?


25 posted on 11/07/2012 6:19:56 AM PST by delapaz
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To: TexasFreeper2009
face it, many conservatives stayed home again, because conservatism wasn’t on the ballot.

It's a good thing these "conservatives" won't be subject to ObamaCare, or have trouble finding medical help when 60% of doctors retire, or pay higher tax rates, or pay for more abortions, or be subject to Supreme Court rulings with Obama's future appointments. Whew, they really dodged a bullet!
26 posted on 11/07/2012 6:20:21 AM PST by DaveInDallas
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To: Paradox

There is a rule of politics that massive negative ads by both sides are neutral but have the effect of lowering turnout.

That may be a part of the hidden story of 2012.


27 posted on 11/07/2012 6:20:44 AM PST by cgbg (HLM--"Democracy is the theory that people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.")
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To: DaveInDallas

Or maybe we thought that there was little difference between RomneyCare or ObamaCare, so why bother?

The GOP could have made Healthcare a salient issue for this election but decided not to when they put up Romney.


28 posted on 11/07/2012 6:23:06 AM PST by delapaz
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To: mgist

Yes but again as I pointed out in another thread, McCain’s extra votes were probably coming from the south and already deep red states thanks to Palin. In reality even with more votes McCain lost more states and lost by a larger margin in places like Fl, VA, and OH.


29 posted on 11/07/2012 6:25:44 AM PST by snarkytart
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To: mgist

Just like you, I find that this makes no sense. How did a tired old man (McCain) attract more votes after four years of chaos...when I apply Occam’s Razor to the question the unpleasant possibility is that we have three million more formerly productive people relying on government largesse due to the the shrinking private sector. Knowing what the administration is capable of, I am open to seeing evidence of massive fraud (’by any means necessary’). Honestly, though, I think that our DWTS nation is pretty comfortable in it’s current decline.


30 posted on 11/07/2012 6:25:55 AM PST by dogcaller
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To: dogcaller

It makes perfect sense. McCain, as sad as he was, was always better on social conservative issues in his history. Romney was just an all around awful candidate for conservatives.

We told them this over and over and over again.


31 posted on 11/07/2012 6:28:18 AM PST by delapaz
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To: delapaz
so why bother?

Ask yourself that in 4 years after Obama's latest term ends, or in 20 years after Obama's last Supreme Court justice retires.
32 posted on 11/07/2012 6:28:44 AM PST by DaveInDallas
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To: RightGeek

Turnout was up at my precinct but down considerably countywide (My county still went to Romney)


33 posted on 11/07/2012 6:29:11 AM PST by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

The life of our country was on the line - I believe the “christians” sat on their hands. “I ain’t voting for no steenkin’ Mormon”. Good job - go read your bible look up something about reaping what you sow - off to my pity party.

Oh and sorry Israel, you’re on your own. Don’t worry “christians”, their just steekin’ joos.


34 posted on 11/07/2012 6:30:08 AM PST by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: joesbucks

Conservatives who didn’t vote for Romney on principle, aided Obama’s reelection.

They have that right, but it’s like painting the kitchen while the house is still on fire.

I wish our side would be more practical and vote to elect the candidate of the two that MOST represents your values. That’s how the Dems keep winning.


35 posted on 11/07/2012 6:30:08 AM PST by trublu
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To: dogcaller

The “tired old man” had Palin, she got a lot of the GOP voters to the polls. Now, perhaps she got a lot of Dem voters to the polls as well, so it’s hard to gauge her net effect, but clearly she contributed a lot to McCain’s total.

Romney was not a good candidate, and Ryan did absolutely nothing for him as well. In 2004 W got 62 million votes. Adjusting for demographic trends, it would translate to 65-66 million votes today. Romney got 58.5 million at most.

He left 6-7 million GOP voters sitting at home, and no wonder.


36 posted on 11/07/2012 6:30:49 AM PST by ubaldus
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To: DaveInDallas

Next time maybe we’ll get an actual conservative.

Bush gave us John Roberts so that didn’t work out too well did it?


37 posted on 11/07/2012 6:31:19 AM PST by delapaz
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To: mgist

Let me help you with that: Palin fantastically enthused the base so that millions more voted for her ticket than they did for the charisma- and issues-limited Romney and Ryan.


38 posted on 11/07/2012 6:31:39 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: mgist
64 million voted for "W" in 2004! This was predicted over a year ago right here on Free Republic.

Still, there are nearly 100 million people who would easily vote Republican if they all went to the polls, but a large number of them simply don't vote, or they vote selectively.

First guy to get bit by the phenomenon was George Bush (papa) when he lied to people about NO NEW TAXES then went along with a Democrat tax increase. Now the Democrats have found out about this TWO NATIONAL ELECTIONS IN A ROW. Obama still holds the turnout record he set in 2008. But in 2010 30 million Democrats who'd voted in 2008 just stayed home. This time it looks like maybe 10 million Democrats just stayed home!

Those are huge numbers of voters to exhibit such behavior!

39 posted on 11/07/2012 6:32:08 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: headstamp 2
I agree but I think the indifference is much worse. I am management for a company that employs a little over 50 people. We just got over some extremely difficult times where we, as a company were about to go under. If not for a capital investor stepping in and completely turning us around, my our company would no longer exist.

Over the last two months we have interviewed 15 people in hopes of once again starting to expand our numbers to pre-economic collapse;(approx 135). However we could do nothing in terms of hiring until after the election.. Obamacare is going to impact us greatly. In short, we are now looking at hiring 2 of those individuals due to them being prime candidates for a new Dept. we are starting, and unfortunately looking at laying off 2 members of the work force to offset this. We have also, over the last two months, contemplated 32 hour work weeks and have done some trial runs with volunteers under the guise of a decreased work load.

My point is every step of the way our president, who is very politically outspoken, had not only been straight forward with management, but also the workforce on what this election could mean.

The result??? A quick walk through of the facility and some chit chat yesterday indicated exactly SIX people were planning to vote. Less than 10% of people who KNEW this election would have a guaranteed impact on their jobs. This in the state of PA. by the way.

What can you possibly due in the face of that kind of indifference?

40 posted on 11/07/2012 6:34:12 AM PST by NImerc
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