Numbers, Part I: Lots Of Voters, Indeed

Minnesota’s official line is that we’re very, very proud of the fact that more of our people jam into the polls on election day than any other state.

OK, so far so good.

So I thought – why not take a look at some previous years?

The blue line shows the total turnout – the percentage of elegible voters that turn out for elections in (respectively) 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 (which is missing from the SOS website, and I didn’t want to extrapolate it, but you can assume it, like the other non-presidential years, is in the 50-70% range, for purposes of comparison), 2008, 2010 and last Tuesday.

The red line is the percentage of registered voters that vote.  It doesn’t seem counter intuitive; people who are registered to vote (and the numbers in every case are the “Registered as of 7AM on election day” numbers) are more likely to actually get down to the polls and pull the trigger.

Obvious pattern #1:  Presidential years are bigger for both figures.

But Monday, let’s look into where some of these numbers come from.

 

16 thoughts on “Numbers, Part I: Lots Of Voters, Indeed

  1. Haven’t been here in a while so I thought I’d scroll thru the election post-mortems. Wow, I love the difference between Reality vs. SITD and Fox. The bitterness is hilarious.

  2. Please do look into the numbers.
    There is far too much panic on the part of some pundits and some GOP leaders who had far too much confidence in a Romney win. We are talking about 2.5%, for God’s sake. Obama is a lame duck with no power to pass anything through the House of Senate.
    No Republican congressman or senator will lose their seat if they do not cooperate with an agenda Obama will make up when the sun rises each morning.
    How many white, working class votes will the GOP lose if it embraces amnesty?
    Obama put together a winning coalition that barely got 50% of the vote. He is not FDR.

  3. Ears,

    Nothing bitter about it – although I know that’s you guys’ standard meme.

    But I see you’re as formulaic and shallow as ever.

  4. No, Ears, while your reasoning is too trite and authority-driven to figure it out, I’m actually a lot more optimistic that I thought.

    More tomorrow on the show.

  5. You know ears. I know you won’t believe this, because you on the left are not really interested in truth, but the lefty comments on this and other blogs I have read post election have given me more laughs than anything else this week.

    Thanks for helping me start out my Saturday on a bright note.

  6. I have heard from more than one lefty that now is the time to put aside our differences and to cooperate on legislation and solving our problems.

    Translation:
    A) Bend over and accept our rules and laws
    B) Don’t campaign in 2014 and 2016 as being the anti-Obama and anti-liberal Democrat.

  7. Chuck, so long as you define the situation in those terms, you will fail to understand the actual politics of the other side, and you will belong to a dwindling party that will go the way of the whigs and the dodo birds.

    What I do not see in your numbers that is significant is the same day voter registration voting. In Minnesota this is significant (and btw, requires a voter ID, or someone who is a registered voter in that precinct vouching for them).

    We did have a big turn out; I was part of the early shift of election judges, and we had an astonishing number of people waiting to vote at 6:30 a.m.; the volume of voters continued steadily all day, with people waiting — although not in the hours upon hours upon hours long lines that occurred in states with Republican Secretary of States screwing up the voting process in an apparent attempt at voter suppression.

    I suspect what will result from the turnout, and the problems in OTHER states is that we will see further federal legislation that will compel them to fix problems they seem delighted to create, and unwilling to resolve. That is why we are still waiting on Florida for a vote count.

    Our problems in Minnesota involved incredibly minor glitches with a few older voting machines that did not give votes to one candidate or issue, unlike the vote-changing to only one candidate – a Republican – that occurred in other states.

    I hope you will encourage your readers to become involved with elections as polling officials – they always need more, including Republicans, because some activities require a polling judge from BOTH parties under law.

    I also hope you will encourage your readers to attend as observers the post-election vote audit for their respective counties. Most people seem unaware that it occurs or that it is required to be open to the public as part of our transparency.

    I know that challenges your myth of voter fraud, but we DO have very transparent and honest elections in Minnesota.

  8. Second question – how do your figures calculate in absentee voting and early voting as part of voter turnout?

  9. Dog, I agree. The gals, peoples of color, homosexuals, Muslims, all decided that they want lots of free stuff from the gov’t. And want to take property away from the successful people. And want affirmative action so they don’t have to earn their place in society.

    I would rather be part of a minority party that is right, then go along with the destruction of America.

  10. Dog…example of how your party does well. You and I should go stand outside the Ramsey county building on Robert and Kellogg. I will say to everyone going in to get their free money that I will get them a job that starts out paying $8.50 an hour. But if they work hard, way down the road they will be successful. You will tell them that you will keep giving them free money. Geuss which one of us wins? Yes, it is your party.

  11. Also Dog, ask those Obama supporters how they plan to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, social security, Obamacare. Please come back with the answers.

    But hey, at least we have several new million people on “disability” under Obama. To say nothing of 47,000,000 on food stamps.

    I agree with you. The Republican party may go the way of the Whigs, as our party believes in work, not free stuff. That puts us in the minority now.

  12. DG,

    I’m working through the numbers this weekend. We’ll see.

    But I’m not interested in hearing your opinion about that. Not at all.

    Before you go commenting on this, you owe me one. Let me restate the question:

    You said the “Stand Your Ground” bill was “crap legislation”. Why? Be specific. .

    Since you showed us yesterday that you don’t understand current firearms law, and that you held up the BCA’s databasee as an opportunity the NRA was passing up without knowing that the SYG bill would have improved the sharing of that information, the conclusion is obvious; you don’t know what you’re talking about, and were just repeating chanting points. It’s obvious.

    But I’ll give you another shot here. Answer the question. Or admit you have no idea what you’re talking about. There is no “c”.

  13. ” . . . or someone to vouch for them.” Yes, indeed, and that’s a problem.

    I am a registered voter in this precinct. I am permitted to vouch for up to 15 other people to same-day register to vote in this precinct. Their ballot goes into the box to be counted WHETHER OR NOT they are illegal aliens, residents of Gary Indiana, felons, students voting at school and at home, too mentally ill to know what they’re doing or even dead. After the election, the winners decide whether crimes were committed, but the ballots STAY IN THE BOX.

    Same-day registration permits the opportunity for fraud, the appearance of corruption, whether or not it actually occurs.

    Dog Gone favors same-day registration.

  14. One has to wonder how many fraudulent votes were cast at her polling place while she was the overseer.

  15. As much as amendment opponents and others tout the high turnout for their success, MN voter turnout (of elligible voters) was less here in 2012 than compared to 2008.

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