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The Return of the Voter: Voter Turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election
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Michael P. McDonald
Published/Copyright:
January 9, 2009
The presidential turnout rate for those eligible to vote was 61.6% in 2008, which marks the third consecutive increase in presidential turnout rates since the modern low point of 51.7% in 1996. Turnout is no longer declining – if it ever was – and has reverted to the 'high' levels experienced during the 1950s and 1960s. This challenges many theories posited to explain turnout declines. I explore election trends among the states in hopes to provide clues as to why civic engagement has been restored.
Keywords: 2008 presidential election; voter turnout
Published Online: 2009-1-9
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Election Issue and Blog Discussion
- Article
- Race and the Moral Character of the Modern American Experience
- Interest Groups in the 2008 Presidential Election: The Barking Dog That Didn't Bite
- The Nomination and the Election: Clearing Away Underbrush
- The Return of the Voter: Voter Turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election
- Foreign Affairs and the 2008 Election
- Presidential Election Forecasts
- An Exceptional Election: Performance, Values, and Crisis in the 2008 Presidential Election
- The Magnitude of the 2008 Democratic Victory: By the Numbers
- LBJ's Revenge: The 2008 Election and the Rise of the Great Society Coalition
- Whither the Roberts Court?
- Review
- Review of America's Three Regimes: A New Political History
- Review of Panorama of a Presidency: How George W. Bush Acquired and Spent His Political Capital
