american goes to the polls - 2014 voter turnout report

[fizzgig]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On the heels of a drop in voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election, turnout in the
2014 midterm was the lowest since World War II. Just 37% of eligible voters cast ballots,
down fi ve points from the 42% of eligible voters who voted in 2010. However, turnout
among states varied widely. States with competitive races and Election Day Registration
out-performed others by wide margins.

• Voter turnout averaged 11 points or 33% higher in the 22 states with competitive statewide races
for U.S. Senate or Governor compared to states without a competitive statewide race.

• Competition in House races did little to draw voters to the polls. Only 39 of 435 House races were rated
as electorally competitive in the lead up to the November midterm by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. This was
down from 100 in 2010 and 57 in 2012.

• States with Election Day Registration (EDR) far outpaced states that don’t allow voters to register or fix
a registration problem on Election Day. Voter turnout in the EDR States averaged 48%, 12 points above voter turnout in
non-EDR states. Four states used EDR for the fi rst time in a midterm in 2014, bringing the total number of states using EDR to 13.

• Maine led the nation in 2014 with 58.5% turnout among eligible voters, follow by Wisconsin at 56.8%.
Colorado rose from 9th place in 2010 to 3rd in 2014 with turnout of 54.5%.

• Seven of the top ten states in voter turnout were Election Day Registration states.

• Nine of the top ten had competitive statewide races. In contrast, the 19 states with the lowest turnout
states in 2014 had no competitive statewide races. Nor did any of those bottom 19 states allow voters to correct a
registration issue when they went to vote. Nevada, Tennessee, New York, Texas and Indiana made up the bottom five
with barely more than a quarter of their state’s voters participating.

• It was again a tale of two electorates between a presidential and a midterm, the first much older
and the second younger and more reflective of the general population. The share of the voting electorate of voters under
age 40 dropped dramatically from a 36% share in 2012 to 26% in 2014

http://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2015/03/america-goes-polls-2014.pdf

i live in colorado and it's wonderfully easy to vote here. everyone gets a mail-in ballot, a couple of weeks of early voting, plenty of places to drop your ballot, election day registration and you can use something as simple as a utility bill or pay stub for your ID. the mid-terms this time around had heated gubernatorial and senatorial races, as well as a number of ballot measures (including personhood). the next thing i'd like to see us do is follow oregon's footsteps and implement automatic voter registration through the dmv (you can register to vote when you renew your license already).

[daleanime]

1. Lots to work on....

[fizzgig]

2. you got that right