When 120 million Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election it set a record as the largest voter turnout in U.S. history. By early accounts, the turnout in 2008 will be ever larger, although it may take days to determine if this is the case.
There is no national election in the United States, rather each state and the District of Columbia conducts individual elections, meaning national data on voter turnout can take some time to compile.
Reports of large voter turnout are particularly significant in a country where, in recent decades, barely half of eligible voters cast ballots. The high numbers estimated for 2008 speak not only to voter engagement and concern, but also to a willingness to set aside weeks of polling data and exercise their right to vote, even for long-shot candidates.
These large numbers of voters were willing to spend hours in line to cast their votes for change, pollster John Zogby told journalists at the State Departments Foreign Press Center. Since April of 2007, Zogbys polls have indicated that the American people wanted a change in direction.
Whoever won this election was going to win the election because the American people saw that person as the most credible agent for change, Zogby said.
Many who saw Democrat Barack Obama as the more credible agent of change came from states traditionally thought to favor Republican presidential candidates. Among the states that switched their support from Republican George W. Bush in 2004 to Democrat Obama were Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and New Mexico.
Many states reported record numbers of newly registered voters for the election. According to the tracking organization Catalist, 13 of the battleground states had registered 3.4 million new voters as of October 14, compared with 1.8 million in 2004. It is unclear how many millions cast their first vote in the 2008 election, but the number includes young people who reached their 18th birthday and newly naturalized U.S. citizens.
Official counts on voter participation probably will not be available for days, but some anecdotal evidence of high voter turnout across the United States already was appearing:
The Virginia State Board of Elections estimated that as of 10 p.m. on November 4, some 50 percent of the states eligible voters already had cast their ballots.
As of 2 p.m. EST, counties in western Pennsylvania were predicting that more than 70 percent of eligible voters in the region would cast ballots.
In Minnesota, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that nearly 80 percent of the states registered voters cast ballots (of 3.7 million eligible voters in Minnesota);
Turnout was so high in the Nebraska 1st Congressional District that some polling places had run out of I Voted stickers by early afternoon.
In New Mexico, some counties were reporting that more than half their eligible voters took advantage of early voting and already had cast their ballots before the polls opened on Tuesday.
The Texas secretary of state predicted 9 million Texans would vote November 4, breaking the record of 7.4 million who voted in 2004 presidential election.
In Oregon, where all ballots are mailed, state officials were not offering official predictions of voter participation. However, based on the record-setting volume of pizza delivery orders for election night, voter interest in the election results is high in this Northwestern state.
Throughout the day, minor problems such as power outages at polling places polls, caused delayed openings. However, U.S. media reported that for the most part voting went smoothly.
(11/5/2008)
- EMportal, Serbia
