Here's a little of a stumper..........
After all the stories of people voting early in droves, standing in lines for hours, overloading the voting capabilities in many states, etc...
Wouldn't you have thought that maybe 2 or 3 times as many people voted in this election as ever before??
The truth is that there really were record numbers who came out to vote...BUT......
NOWHERE near as many as I would have though given all those impressive news report about massive numbers that suggested 200% and 300% more people than in past years.
reference....
2004 Presidential Election...
Bush 62.03 million total votes
Kerry 59.03 million total votes
sum..........
121 million total votes.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922901.html
2008 Presidential Election
"It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election,
based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27552153/
thus only about 13% more people voted this election than last one...
(136.6/121)
**and they are already taking into account the ones yet to be counted.
BUT they even moved my polling place to a gymnasium that is 10 times larger than the little room it's been in before becasue of expectations of HUGE numbers.
so how does
a 13% jump account for such massive numbers reported, such long lines, such descriptions of huge turnout?
Keep in mind, just the numbers given in the press for the massive, huge turnout at "early voting" should have swallowed up all those 13% more voters and left yesterday pretty unscathed.
shouldn't the system as it's always been have been able to handle a 13% jump easily without moving to huge gymnasiums and hiring extra poll attendants and running out of ballots, etc....?
Anyone have an explanation?
My polling place had 20 or so people there before me at 6AM before opening and I have never even had one in past elections, and by the time we all got in and got our ballots, there was a total of probably 40 there (when never more than 3-4 were ever present at that time when I've voted before.)