At 08:36 PM 11/3/2004 -0800 Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>--- Russell Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Did I understand the bit about the number of voters
>> right?
>> I got the impression that John Kerry got more votes
>> in this election
>> than any president in the history of the USA ever
>> got?
>> The popular vote thing I understand (though 1988 was
>> a long time
>> ago...), but to have that sort of change in voting
>> levels seems amazing
>> (especially to a citizen of a country where voting
>> is compulsory...)
>>
>> Cheers
>> Russell C.
>
>Well, it's still a growing country, so I'm not clear
>why anyone is making a big deal over this. We had
>fairly high turnout - high by late 20th century
>standards, certainly. Historically, when countries
>are happy they have low turnout. At election time,
>the US has been an extremely happy country since 1980.
> That was 24 years ago, and there's been a lot of
>population growth since then. Combine the long period
>of time since there has been a high turnout election
>with the population growth since that time, and hey,
>there you go.
You also forgot the Perot factor. In 1992 and 1996, the vote was being
split three ways. Nader had a simillar, though samller, effect in 2000.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a truly extraordinary 57% of the vote on 53%
VAP turnout. Bush probably couldn't match 57% against Dukakis and turnout
was only 50% VAP. Then the next three elections were split three ways,
which offset the population increases, and the the 55% turnout in 1992.
(Interestingly, 1996 was just under 50% and 2000 was only 51.3%.)
With Ralph Nader getting less than 0.5% this time around, very high
turnout, and population increases, it was almost inevitable that both
candidates would finally top Reagan's 1984 number this year.
JDG
________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"We have one country, one Constitution, and one future that binds us."
-George W. Bush, 11/3/2004
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