2004 US Voter Turnout

[Flagg]

Has anyone seen accurate voter turnout % numbers?

Considering the considerable effort expended by many high profile celebrities and the huge media hype surrounding voter registration the results appear quite poor.

In 2000:

205,815,000 eligible

105,586,274 voted

51.3% turnout

IN 2004:

211,000,000 eligible(my guesstimate)

114,582,718(acording to NYTimes.com)

54.3% turnout

Which means higher turnout than the LAST election, but still pales compared to the 1992 election(55.1%) between Bush Senior and Clinton...quite surprising.

I would have thought with the hype and devisiveness it would have been more akin to the 1968 election(60.8%).

I've always been fascinated with why turnout is so consistently low in the US(and other western nations like Switzerland for example), yet other western nations(Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) consistenly achieve voter turnout of up to 90%.

You'd think the Italians with an election averaging once a year since WWII would be sick of it, but no they keep going back to the polls at a rate of almost 90% on average.

It's a strange world we live in, the more I try to understand it, the stranger it becomes.

[aartamen]

There's something wrong with people who want to vote when they are 18 years old. Just my opinion.

Americans tend to be pretty apatetic about big issues. If it's not sports.

[szr]

I voted in my first election (Mayoral) just weeks after I turned 18.

Maybe voting should be compulsory, like Australia. But then again, you have the right to not vote, in the US.

Maybe voting should be required for people who have a driver's licence.

[von_Moo142]

We have a voter apathy problem in the UK, 59% in the last general election apparently.

I have no idea why this should be, short of people not bothering because they don't think it's important or worthwhile to vote.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1453861.stm

[aartamen]

I voted in my first election (Mayoral) just weeks after I turned 18.

Maybe voting should be compulsory, like Australia. But then again, you have the right to not vote, in the US.

Maybe voting should be required for people who have a driver's licence.

Nobody votes in mayoral elections. Have you seen a doctor about this?

[szr]

Nobody votes in mayoral elections. Have you seen a doctor about this?Ya. She said I've got enlarged ********s.

I think my "manditory voting for driver's licence holders" idea is a good one.

[Seiyuuki]

Voters turnout are low in the U.S. because people tend to forget that between presidential elections, you have your senatorial elections, representatives elections, governor elections, mayoral elections, elections on various bills and laws and initiatives in each of the 50 states. That is a lot of elections to do and Americans tend to get lazy or simply don't give a care anymore.

Also, the 50% range number are number of registered voters. The number of people within the registered voters bracket that vote are somewhere around the percentage of 70 and higher.

[cut]

We have a voter apathy problem in the UK, 59% in the last general election apparently.

I have no idea why this should be, short of people not bothering because they don't think it's important or worthwhile to vote.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1453861.stm

yeah but I reckon we'd get a little more then 54.3 percent if we had the kind of polarisation the US had going into this election

[cut]

Maybe voting should be compulsory, like Australia. But then again, you have the right to not vote, in the US.


If you don't want to vote just spoil the ballot paper. The US would have to sort out their polling stations first though.

[Hot Lips]

What do you think about Internet voting? Or having an election weekend so folks have more time/options to get to the polls?

[TALOS]

What do you think about Internet voting? Or having an election weekend so folks have more time/options to get to the polls?
Voting weekend would be ok, but internet voting would be hacked instantly. IMHO

[army cadet_ngcsu]

As a person who has kept up with politics since the age of 16 and who couldn't wait to vote when 18...here I am, I'm 21 and I still haven't voted yet. I think that if you lived in a much smaller country like Switzerland or Ireland, it would seem like your one vote would make a difference...besides its f*cking football season man and the Steelers are pretty damn good this year.