A few weeks ago (right after the election) I wrote an entry talking about how voter turnout for the Presidential election was actually lower in 2008 than it was back in 2004. Well, there are some updated numbers out from RealClearPolitics.com and Wikipedia that show a much higher voter turnout in 2008. Here are some updated statistics regarding the 2008 Presidential election:
- Senator Barack Obama received 52.92% of the popular vote while Senator John McCain received 45.67% of the popular vote. This compares to 2004 when President George Bush received 50.74% of the popular vote while Senator John Kerry received 48.27% of the popular vote.
- In terms of the total vote count, Obama received 69,456,884 votes while McCain received 59,934,813 votes. This is remarkable because Obama won this election by about 9 and a half million votes. For comparison’s sake, Bush received 62,040,610 votes in 2004 while Kerry received 59,028,444 votes.
- In total, there were 131,237,589 votes cast in 2008 versus 122,267,553 votes cast in 2004. This represents an increase of 8,970,036 votes in 2008 than in 2004.
- The total voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters was approximately 63%. This percentage is the highest voter turnout since 1960, when 64.8% of eligible voters turned out.
- The increased “youth” vote only represented one additional percentage point in the overall voter turnout. In other words, the youth vote increased by only 1,312,376 votes – certainly not the huge bump that everyone expected
So there is an updated look at the 2008 voter turnout in comparison to the 2004 voter turnout. The 2008 was still an historic election and there was a giant leap in voter turnout, but it is worth mentioning that the youth turnout was not as big as was expected – further proving that just because far-left, anti-war, anti-Bush college students received increased coverage during this election season by a liberal national media, their groundswell of activism does not adequately represent the feelings of their peers. That might be the most interesting piece of information coming out of the 2008 election…
First of all, it is said “a historic” not an historic, unless you are speaking the Queens form of English where the “h” is a soft H. An precedes non consonants and H as you and I pronounce it, is the hard “H”. People in the U.S. who use that pronunciation I find pretentious and ill-informed since I know you are neither, I think nonetheless of you.
I will just remind our commentator that apples and oranges are being compared as the vote to 18 year old citizens was not conveyed until well into the Vietnam war and as such means the comparison is at the very least regards further inspection.
I was an English major in college and I was taught to write “an historic.” Pretentious or not, that’s what I was taught and that’s what I’ll continue to write.
The Vietnam comment is irrelevant to the facts presented. The youth vote increased by 1.3 million overall from 2004, which is not the dramatic increase that it could have been or that you would have thought it could have been by watching the campaign coverage.
You are still pretentious with the “an” historic and so also are your professors. If a little anglophilic.
As if the use of the term anglophilic isn’t pretentious!
I’m going to use that word in an upcoming post – I like it. 🙂
You should refer to usage of the word “An” . I am correct and you should correct it.
BTW anyone who uses the term “an historic” is either an Anglo or an anglophile definition. imho. But you are half Irish and should have some loathing like me.
No.
Back to the topic much? 🙂 Although the youth vote may not have been at the levels overestimated by the liberal-savvy media, the seeds have undoubtedly been planted into their young minds. What will be interesting to see is how the children of the youth will vote in a couple decades. The general “rule” followed by young voters, although likely bent (if not broken) this year, is to vote as your parents do/did. If you are raised to think in certain lights and believe in selected ideals, it’s only logical that your brain functions in that said way.