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2004 US Presidential Election
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November 03, 2004
Misc. | Highest Vote Count Since JFK v. Nixon

Voters across the country stormed the polls in record numbers yesterday to help decide one of the closest presidential races in recent history.

“I’ve been working in elections for 15 years, and I have never seen anything like this before,” said one poll worker in Silver Spring, Md.

Officials estimated that more than 125 million people voted yesterday — the highest turnout since the 1960 election, when John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon.

The Gallup Organization forecast 60 percent of registered voters cast their ballots yesterday, compared to 63 percent in 1960.

In 2000, just 52 percent of the voting population — or 105 million Americans — voted.

Some areas are expected to break even older records. Washington state Secretary of State Sam Reed said he expected 84 percent of registered voters to vote, “the greatest percentage since World War II.”

Read more…



Posted by Michele at November 3, 2004 05:17 AM | TrackBack
Comments

This means that in this election, more Americans voted than ever before.

Posted by: aebrain [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 3, 2004 05:27 AM

The statistics about the voter turnout is a bit misleading when comparing the US to most other countries. The US counts number of voters compared to the “total voting age population”, not citizens that would be eligable to vote. Most other countries (all that I’m aware of) compare the votes with the eligable voters. The US has millions of people living there that are not citizens, and cant vote. (17millions in 2000)
Also, the US only count the number of valid votes for these stats. Other countries count all votes given, valid or not. Adjust for that, and the US gets much better voter statistics.

This year it will be even better, upwards 70% or something like that. (It was 60% in 2000, or 86% if you compare with registered voters.)
(Source:US census bureau “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000”)

Posted by: Erik [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 3, 2004 06:11 AM

I got off a plane and went to my polling station at 7:50 p.m. p.s.t. I was the last person to vote in the precinct, number 654 out of 1,134 registered voters, not counting “a big pile” of absentee ballots (the district includes Fairchild Airforce Base — we have alot of people in or around Iraq). 237 people voted in the primary.

Posted by: j [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 3, 2004 10:00 AM

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