By Reid Wilson TheHill.com April 6, 2009
The electorate that voted President Obama into office in 2008 represented a dramatically more accurate picture of the American populace than in previous elections, but overall turnout actually shrank from 2004, according to a new report.
With an increased turnout among African-American and younger voters, the 2008 electorate looked remarkably more like America as a whole, according to the United States Elections Project at George Mason University.
But overall turnout was largely unchanged. GMU political scientist Michael McDonald, who authored the report, said 9 million more people voted for president in 2008 than in 2004, while the voting-age population increased by about 10.1 million, meaning turnout was largely flat.
African-American turnout increased 4.9 percent over 2004, according to the report, which relied on public opinion polls and a new Current Population Survey from the Census Bureau. In total, 65.2 percent of black voters turned out, close to the 66.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites who showed up at the polls.
Meanwhile, Hispanic turnout increased 2.7 percent over four years ago, though just under half - 49.9 percent - of Hispanic voters made it to the voting booth or turned in their absentee ballots.
The percentage of white voters who went to the polls or cast absentee ballots declined slightly, down 1.1 percent from 2004 and accounting for the otherwise-flat turnout figures.
Those between the ages of 18 and 29, an audience that overwhelmingly favored President Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), remained the least likely to vote this year, with just 51.1 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. Still, that was up just over 2 percent from 2004, while turnout among all other age groups fell.
It is the second consecutive presidential election in which younger-voter turnout has increased. In 2000, just over 40 percent of voters between 18 and 29 voted.
Census data also shows political parties, intent on banking votes before Election Day, were largely successful, as the number of early ballots cast shot up dramatically between 2004 and 2008.
In total, 29.7 percent of voters made their choices official before Election Day, about 10 points higher than the number of voters who used absentee or early-voting methods in 2004.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/report-08-turnout-was-flat-but-more-dive rse-2009-04-06.html
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