I’m confused. The Second Suffolk Senate district race featured several polling locations that ran out of ballots because of unexpectedly large numbers of voters who decided to check in to vote for Deval, right? http://www.theboston… But the vote totals in 2006, including blanks and write ins, were 45,973 with Wilkerson winning with 28,694 votes. Back in 2004, by contrast, Wilkerson was unopposed and won with 46,008 votes with vote totals of 61,917 including blanks and write ins. http://www.sec.state… Let’s do the math: “unexpectedly huge turnout” in 2006: 46,008. Turnout in 2004: 61,917. Help me with this one people. Did John Kerry really have that much more appeal in largely minority neighborhoods than Deval Patrick?
Please share widely!
Presidential elections always bring out more voters than other elections.
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p> – Dan
But thanks for your answer.
I’d be shocked if any state has EVER witnessed a higher turnout in non-presidential election years as opposed to presidential elections.
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All in all, getting around 75% of the turnout as compared to 2004 isn’t bad, and I believe MA tends to be on the higher end of the turnout scale in the US.
To get a true sense of turnout rates, you need to compare similar elections. In other words, Prez years to Prez years, Gov years to Gov years. So the real comparison here needs to be 2006 to 2002.
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In 2004, Massachusetts set a record for turnout with nearly 3 million voters going to the polls. We didn’t exceed that this year, so, yes, even with Deval’s energizing campaign, turnout was lower in 2006 than in 2004 (an unfair comparison). That said, turnout was up this year, but in comaprision to 2002.
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Again, the real comparison for Wilkerson needs to be to 2002. In that year, Wilkerson – running unopposed again – received 28,784 voters with another 13,771 blanks. That’s a total of 42,558 including write-ins — less than this year’s #s. Can the additional 3,000 voters casting a ballot in her race be because of Deval? Maybe, but since her winning total didn’t go up much, it is more likely that it was because she was opposed.
Thanks. There’s always next election……