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Gubernatorial candidates Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell have toured, tailgated and twittered to win an elusive, college-age voting bloc. Efforts from the campaigns, both Democrat and Republican, to improve student voter turn-out, however, may only go so far at the University, where apathy, registration confusion and pre-voting numbers seem to foreshadow a potentially low turnout. Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta said gubernatorial races historically bring in fewer voters than presidential elections, and that this year, absentee turnout might fall to 40 percent, lower than what it has usually been in previous years.

Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008.

The race between Barack Obama and John McCain was supposed to be about winning the middle. Both candidates embraced the theme of moving from partisan gridlock to seeking bipartisan consensus. Obama's speeches evoked a country that was "not blue states and red states, but more United States." McCain focused on his record of working on both sides of Senate aisle. In contrast to the 2004 election, in which both parties sought to motivate their bases, this campaign was set on the battlefield of undecided voters. The election results, however, record the exact opposite happening. Most undecided voters swung to McCain,...

If I read about the "landslide" election once more I will be forced to hurl bile. The raw data...the true numbers speak what happened in this election. Obama won by: 204,577 in FL 206,770 in OH 202,110 in VA 13,993 in NC 25,836 in IN 119,896 in NV 140,732 in IA That comes out to 913,914 votes. So yes...people are claiming McCain was crushed by 7 million votes but in all reality it was 913,914 votes in total that Obama needed at the end of the day. Turn out was lower than 2004 for the GOP...about 20% less. We pretty...

A look at vaious exit polls (including the linked ones): Looks like Party ID in three exit polls Favored the Democrats 39%D/32%R/29%I (+7% Democrats). A breakdown of several exit polls provides the following observations: (Good news/bad news) 1.) Women are increasingly outvoting men. This is bad news because women always vote majority Democrat, always. No exceptions. We need to increase registration of male voters, as well as turnout. 2.) Latinos (and Asians) gave their largest margin to a candidate - almost 3:1 Democrats to GOP. The GOP needs to address this, preferably by finding more Conservative Latino/Asian candidates, especially in...

Despite widespread predictions of record turnout in this year’s presidential election, roughly the same portion of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 as in 2004. Between 60.7 percent and 61.7 percent of the 208.3 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, compared with 60.6 percent of those eligible in 2004, according to a voting analysis by American University political scientist Curtis Gans, an authority on voter turnout. He estimated that between 126.5 million and 128.5 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, versus 122.3 million four years ago. Gans said the gross number of ballots cast in 2008 was the...

As usual, the media has missed the huge story of this election. Their story is that Obama registered huge masses of new supporters and got them to the polls. At first, that was what I thought, but that is not the key factor. I was expecting the highest percentage turnout in 100 years amounting to 130,000,000 voters, but instead as of 5:00 PM EDT, 121,146,964 people voted for Obama or McCain. In 2004, 121,069,054 people voted for Bush or Kerry. Hence in a hotly contested election in which a fortune was spent on the race, there was no big surge...

This is interesting analysis by Marston. Does this mean that McCain cost us seats in the House and Senate? I have to admit, when McCain was elected in the primaries, my first inclination was "we lost already". Did any of you think the same thing back then? McCain's repulsion in the base kept potential voters home for other seats, it seems.

Despite a record number of registered voters this year, intense interest in the presidential election and the historic outcome, Ohio's voter turnout was lower Tuesday than in 2004, unofficial statistics show. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is reporting 67 percent turnout, compared with 72 percent in 2004. She had been predicting 80 percent turnout this time. The percentage could increase as provisional ballots, overseas ballots and other outstanding votes are included during the official canvass in the coming weeks. But overall turnout still is expected to be lower than in 2004, leaving experts at a loss to explain it --...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new report from American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate concludes that voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was the same in percentage terms as it was four years ago — or at most has risen by less than 1 percent. Click here to read the entire report. The report released Thursday estimates that between 126.5 and 128.5 million Americans cast ballots in the presidential election earlier this week. Those figures represent 60.7 percent or, at most, 61.7 percent of those eligible to vote in the country.“A downturn in the number and percentage of...

Pre-election headlines declared 'Record Turn-out Expected' with expectations of possibly 130 million or more voters showing up to vote. What happened to that notion? With counting still on-going, there are a million less votes than there were in 2004 and only 121 million in total. Did exaggerated poll numbers and the promise of long lines discourage voting?

I agree with D.J. Drummond in his blog here : http://stolenthunder.blogspot.com/ when he said : ----------------------------------------------------- Consider the next fact; turnout this year was down, not up. Down by more than five million votes from 2004. Somebody did not bother to vote this year. But who was it? Again looking at CNN, it turns out that participation by democrats was 7 points higher than republicans. There was a modest 3 percent increase nationally in democrat voter registration from 2004’s tallies, while republicans dropped turnout by at least 15 percent from 2004. So if you are one of those eight million...

-snip- Gans said the lower end of his estimate would put the rate near that of 2004. Experts calculate turnout rates in different ways based on whom they consider eligible voters. Breakdown by party voting shows that Republican turnout rates are down quite a bit, while Democratic turnout rates are up, Gans said. Republican states, such as Wyoming and South Dakota, saw turnout drop. "I think they were discouraged," Gans said. North Carolina saw the greatest increase in turnout, because of close presidential, Senate and gubernatorial races, according to Gans' research. Other states where turnout increased were Indiana, Georgia and...

Voters were lined up by the hundreds Tuesday as polls opened in Virginia, and reports quickly began to mount of malfunctioning voting machines and polling places opening late. The State Board of Elections said at a briefing there were no "widespread problems" and blamed human error and the rain for those problems that were reported. "Virginians are turning out in record numbers," spokeswoman Susan S. Pollard said in a statement. "Although a light rain is falling across the state, it does not seem to have dampened turnout."... State elections officials have said Virginia could see an unprecedented Election Day turnout....

The final numbers are in -- and turnout in the 2004 presidential election, it seems, was a bit more impressive than previously believed. The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate reported yesterday that more than 122 million people voted in the November election, a number that translates into the highest turnout -- 60.7 percent -- since 1968. Turnout was 6.4 percent higher than in 2000, the largest uptick in voter participation since the 1952 election. The numbers are a bit higher than the research group's initial estimates, which were based on unofficial tallies and released days after the...

WASHINGTON – Voter turnout will be the highest in decades, dwarfing recent presidential elections, experts predict. The only question dividing experts is how huge will it be. Will it be the largest since 1968, largest since 1960 or even, as one expert predicts, the largest in a century? Soaring early voting levels hint at a big turnout, but that could just be the same voters casting ballots earlier instead of more voters hitting the polls. Weather should generally be favorable, according to forecasts. --snip-- Michael McDonald of George Mason University is so optimistic he's predicting the highest level in a...

It is the last great unknown in a White House battle that has been polled and analyzed for nearly two years -- who will actually show up and vote? The outcome of the race between John McCain and Barack Obama rests on which unpredictable combination of new voters, young voters, black voters, suburban voters, white voters, Hispanic voters, rural voters and even sporadic voters cast a ballot in Tuesday's election. Officials in both campaigns are predicting a record high turnout -- and a surge of new voter registrations and the long lines for early voting across the country appear to...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup polling in October finds little evidence of a surge in young voter turnout beyond what it was in 2004. While young voter registration may be up slightly over 2004, the reported level of interest in the election and intention to vote among those under 30 are no higher than they were that year.

The best way to avoid shock and demoralization from a repeat of the 2004 exit poll nightmare is to expect it again this year and ignore it. Remember that pleasant afternoon on Election Day 2004 when the exit polls were leaked showing a Kerry blowout in the making? Politico. More recently, in 2004, exit poll data that began circulating early in the afternoon led to short-lived Democratic elation and deep Republican anxiety. By evening, some of President George W. Bush’s key strategists were frantic, emailing reporters at polling organizations to better understand the gap between what they were finding on...

I suddenly noticed that the next big expansion to the popular "World of Warcraft" online game, "Wrath of the Lich King", comes out on November 3rd. That's one day before the election. Anyone think basement-dwelling liberals will be too busy with the new game to go out and vote? Hey, I can dream...

There's a huge buzz in the conservative community. Republicans are finally on board with John McCain's candidacy, what with his excellent accounting of himself at Rick Warren's Civil Forum at Saddleback and the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket. We should feel excited, even proud to be Republicans again. We appear to have finally found our way, recovering from the mistakes that were made which led to the Democrats taking over both houses of congress in 2006. But lately I've been sensing a certain feeling of cockiness. Democrats, we are told, are running scared. Palin has the Obama camp...

WASHINGTON - When Barack Obama announces his choice for vice president, the real payoff may come during the next few months — one text message at a time. Obama's campaign plans to break the news of the Democratic candidate's vice presidential pick to people who have signed up to receive e-mails and text messages from the campaign. It should give Obama's team access to tens of thousands of cell phone numbers that could be used to mobilize voters under 30 on Election Day. "What Obama is creating is this army of individuals, these grass-roots activists, who are out there trying...

Divisive social issues will be on the ballot in several states in November, including constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage in Arizona, California and Florida, and limitations on abortion in California, Colorado and South Dakota. Although research indicates that ballot measures do not drastically alter voter turnout, they have begun attracting the attention of both presidential campaigns. Unlike 2004, when same-sex marriage bans were considered in 11 states, no single issue will dominate statewide ballots. “Tax and spending issues are typically one of the main focuses of these measures, but this time that’s less true,” said Jennie Drage Bowser, a policy...

Another 50-50 Myth Debunked by: Bethany Stotts, May 16, 2008 Do Americans live in a democracy or in a scum-ridden, corrupt regime run by elite interests? Skeptics tend to believe the latter. “Start with this reality: the Powers That Be don’t want genuine democracy...They intend for politics to be a spectator event for us, scripted by the one-tenth of 1 percent of elites who put up the controlling money,” write Jim Hightower and Susan DeMarco in their book, Swim Against the Current. While hyperbolic (as is much of Hightower’s writing), their argument exemplifies how research placing American voter turnout at...

Would having elections on a Saturday or Sunday encourage more people to vote and would it be better for the country? I was wondering how many people don't vote because they have to work. Consider that they have to get up early, get ready for work and commute during morning rush hour. The polling place may be in another direction from their route to work and they may have a long distance to their jobs. If someone is working a full day, they have to take travel time plus 8 1/2 to 9 hours on the job, then the commute...

On election day and night — only three weeks ago, although it seems much longer — several people asked me if the turnout would be over 50%. The answer, of course, was of course. But for some time it looked lower, and quite a few people, many of them on a losing campaign or two, went on about this as though it somehow justified their losing. “Schwarzenegger may have won big,” this sentiment went, “but only 35% turned out in Orange County in the lowest statewide turnout ever.” Many thought statewide turnout would be under 50%. But they, perhaps, forgot...

I've been doing my best to keep up with data on Republican and Democrat use of absentee ballots and early voting. Both of these are said to be good predictors of turnout. Here's what I have so far: State of Maryland Party identification is 52% D 23% R according to the Pew Center. About 78K Democrats requested absentee ballots. If requests had been proportional to registration 34,2320 GOP voters would have made requests. The number of requestors has been TWICE the expected number: about 68K. These numbers are nothing short of remarkable--and all that is necessary to explain The Washington...

Top Democrats are increasingly concerned that they lack an effective plan to turn out voters this fall, creating tension among party leaders and prompting House Democrats to launch a fundraising effort aimed exclusively at mobilizing Democratic partisans.

A record turnout by the state's 5.4 million Republicans could cut into a Democratic registration edge that otherwise puts Schwarzenegger and other statewide GOP candidates at a numerical disadvantage at the polls. The turnout operation — which will be bankrolled with as much as $25 million — is being assembled at a state party office in Burbank by William Christiansen, a veteran state GOP operative whose get-out-the-vote program for the 2004 Bush campaign in Arizona helped deliver a 10-point victory. Former Bush strategists also are in charge of Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign, which is playing a central role in the turnout...

MANHATTAN BEACH -- Trying to fire up a lackluster crowd at a "get out the vote" rally, City Councilman Jim Aldinger asked who would be working over the weekend to get Californians to the polls on Tuesday. Only a handful of the 80 activists raised their hands at the rally Thursday for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Campaign consultants reported similarly tepid responses from volunteers around the state -- even though an expected low voter turnout and an extremely tight gubernatorial primary could make this year's "get out the vote" efforts more decisive than in past statewide campaigns. Secretary of State...

A new on-line poll of 1,028 conservative activists and donors shows that 77 percent are either seriously disappointed with Republican Congressional leaders or want them replaced. The January 31 survey also found that 54 percent of conservatives feel so abandoned by current Congressional leaders and President Bush that they plan to reduce their contributions and/or grassroots work for GOP candidates in the 2006 election. And 70 percent would support a principled conservative challenger running against an established incumbent Republican in a 2006 GOP primary. The poll, taken just two days before House Republicans vote to choose new leaders, should serve...

Iraq Turnout Is Higher Than in Last 2 Ballots Sunnis Lead Surge in Participation By Omar Fekeiki and Jonathan Finer Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, December 22, 2005; Page A22 BAGHDAD, Dec. 21 -- Nearly 70 percent of eligible voters participated in parliamentary elections here last week, a turnout far exceeding that of the two previous Iraqi ballots this year, election officials said Wednesday. But they also said they were investigating at least 20 serious complaints of impropriety related to the election, the results of which have been hotly contested by a range of parties. "The question is not one...

National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2004 VAP – Voting Age Population Year-Turnout VAP (%) 2004----55.3% 2002----37.0% 2000----51.3% 1998----36.4% 1996----49.1% 1994----38.8% 1992----55.1% 1990----36.5% 1988----50.1% 1986----36.4% 1984----53.1% 1982----39.8% 1980----52.6% 1978----37.2% 1976----53.6% 1974----38.2% 1972----55.2% 1970----46.6% 1968----60.8% 1966----48.4% 1964----61.9% 1962----47.3% 1960----63.1%Source: Federal Election Commission. Data drawn from Congressional Research Service reports, Election Data Services Inc., and State Election Offices. Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Final results in Iraq's parliamentary election may not be known for two weeks, but early indications show the Shiite tickets doing well in traditional Shiite strongholds, election officials said Friday. In Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni Arab province of Nineveh, indications were that the Sunni coalition came in first, said a representative for the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, Hameed Shabaky. He said the Shiite governing party apparently came in fourth behind the Sunni coalition, the Kurds and a bloc led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite. Turnout in what was a mostly peaceful...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2005 – Sunni voter turnout in today's Iraqi election appeared much greater than it was during the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq said today. News coverage of long lines of Iraqis waiting to cast their ballots across Iraq today already indicated a higher overall turnout than during the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said during a live satellite broadcast appearance during today's Pentagon "town hall" meeting. "The Iraqi people have had a great day today," Casey said, noting that the level...

2002 Midterm Election Results VAP(Voting Age Population): 215,139,087 Total Votes Cast: 80,295,249 VAP Turnout 2002: 36.4% ------------------------------------------- 1998 Midterm Election Results VAP(Voting Age Population): 205,891,406 Total Votes Cast: 74,825,832 VAP Turnout 1998: 35.2% -------------------------------------------

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s deeply divided Shias, Sunnis and Kurds voted under heavy guard on Saturday to decide the fate of a new constitution aimed at establishing democracy after more than two decades of Saddam Hussein’s repressive rule. A day that US and Iraqi leaders feared could turn bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months. Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad’s 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters. But the only deaths were those of three Iraqi soldiers in a roadside bomb far from a polling site, and there were no major attacks reported as US...

------------------------------------------- 2002 Midterm Election ResultsVAP(Voting Age Population): 215,139,087 Total Votes Cast: 80,295,249 VAP Turnout 2002: 36.4%Link: http://elections.gmu.edu/VAP_VEP.htm ------------------------------------------- 1998 Midterm Election ResultsVAP(Voting Age Population): 205,891,406 Total Votes Cast: 74,825,832 VAP Turnout 1998: 35.2%Link: http://elections.gmu.edu/1998_voting_age_population.htm -------------------------------------------

Some issues, especially those that even tangentially involve race, become so one-sided there is no respectable opposition. But sometimes shifting political sands make it acceptable in polite company to oppose what was once a motherhood cause. It happened with affirmative action, and we may be approaching that same point regarding the current truism that increasing voter turnout is good, regardless of whether doing so encourages, or at least tolerates, fraud. Obviously, we will never return to the days when people could be prevented or pressured from voting based on their race. But cases in Orlando and in Wisconsin and state...

Voter turnout in New York City got a big boost in the last presidential election from immigrants, according to a study released yesterday. Nearly 80 percent of the immigrants voted for Democrat John Kerry, the study found, noting that more than 73 percent are registered Democrats. But 66 percent of Russian immigrants crossed party lines — nearly 80 percent are registered Democrats — and voted for President Bush, the study found.

Sunday, Nov. 7, 2004 Rove Credits Swiftvets With 'Energizing' Bush Vote Bush-Cheney re-election architect Karl Rove gave credit on Sunday to the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth for exposing John Kerry's anti-war past and energizing Republican voters to turn out at the polls. Asked what role anti-Kerry ads sponsored by the Swiftvets played in Bush's re-election victory, Rove told "Fox News Sunday": "They were made important by the fact that Senator Kerry, at his convention, really talked ... only about Vietnam." The top White House adviser explained: "I was amazed by the people that I met around the...

Voter turnout figures from Jan. 30 council elections in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Turnout figures for several Sunni provinces were not available Friday:' _ Babil: Of 694,192 registered to vote, 494,054 or 71 percent voted. _ Baghdad: Of 3,678,261 registered, 1,750,772 or 48 percent voted. _ Diyala: Of 624,099 registered, 210,574 or 34 percent voted. _ Dohuk: Of 429,182 registered, 383,265 or 89 percent voted. _ Karbala: Of 409,081 registered, 297,201 or 73 percent voted. _ Maysan: Of 417,273 registered, 246,957 or 59 percent voted. _ Muthanna: Of 281,987 registered, 173,155 or 61 percent voted. _ Najaf: Of 493,808...

Our Ninawa province correspondant reports 80 percent turnout in Mosul.Mosul witnessed an unexpected turnout after hours of hesitation. People were afraid that security forces would not be able to control armed attacks on voting centers and voters.A source at the Mosukl directorate said that the fact that a number of criminals were arrested the day before the elections had a positive impact on the electoral operation, which met with unexpected success.The reporter added that he expects a turnout of 80%, the registration period for voters in several voting centers having been extended 2 hours after the set time of 5PM....

CNN just reported 72% turnout in the Iraqi elections!!!! No link yet....

BERLIN -- The presidents of France and Russia, top opponents of U.S. policy in Iraq, joined world leaders Monday in praising this weekend's landmark Iraqi elections as a success of democracy over terrorism, but the welcome was tempered by concern that Sunni Arabs be included in a future government. French President Jacques Chirac spoke with President Bush by telephone, saying he was satisfied by the "participation rate and the good technical organization." "These elections mark an important step in the political reconstruction of Iraq. The strategy of terrorist groups has partly failed," Chirac said, according to a French presidential spokesman....

Iraq’s interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said on Saturday that most Iraqis will not vote in Sunday’s elections due to deteriorating security conditions and warned that the poll will not be successful if the Sunnis don’t participate. "What we hope is that everyone will take part," President Ghazi al-Yawer said at a press conference on Saturday. "But if the majority of the Iraqi people does not take part, and we know that the majority will not take part because of the security situation and not because they are boycotting the elections," "There are only very few who will boycott, but the...

Page down on the right hand side for 'selected contracts' bid figures for the latest nunbers on the exchange.

Preliminary reports that turnout in Sunday's Iraq election has topped 70 percent have surprised American reporters, many of whom had predicted that terrorists would succeed in sabotaging the U.S.- backed referendum. "I have to say, it's going a lot better than I thought it would," Rod Nordland, Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief, said Sunday as the numbers came in. "The attacks by the insurgents, while they're numerous, haven't reached that kind of critical threshold where it really kept everybody home," he told the Fox News Channel. With an hour left to go before the polls in Iraq close, Reuters reported that...

GWB will cast a long shadow on history for is bold defense of freedom and Democracy. To all honorable Iraqis: Welcome to the brotherhood of freedom.

Liberal activists are pondering how pro-Democratic advocacy groups, such as America Coming Together and MoveOn.org, exceeded their goal in turning out record numbers of voters on behalf of John Kerry yet still lost to George W. Bush. The answer is simple. While Democratic groups did a good job in mobilizing their base, the Republicans did a great job. The reasons for the GOP's success are mainly due to a better use of volunteers and a centralized, Party-based strategy that allowed for more effective coordination. To a significant extent, the Kerry campaign and the Democratic Party depended on "527" committees to...