As Usual, Media Overplay Voter Turnout

It happens nearly every election day: The media swoon over what looks like (partly because it was predicted to be a) heavy turnout.  Gosh, look at all those people standing in line!  When it's over, the initial numbers seem to back that up and a "record" turnout is declared.  Then the dust settles and, well, there goes any big leap or, usually, any leap at all.  That appears to be the case again this year, with the latest report suggesting only a slight uptick, 1%, if any at all.  The report released Thursday estimates that between 126.5 and 128.5 million Americans cast ballots in the presidential election earlier this week.

CNN quotes expert Curtis Gans: “Many people were fooled (including this student of politics although less so than many others) by this year’s increase in registration (more than 10 million added to the rolls), citizens’ willingness to stand for hours even in inclement weather to vote early, the likely rise in youth and African American voting, and the extensive grassroots organizing network of the Obama campaign into believing that turnout would be substantially higher than in 2004....But we failed to realize that the registration increase was driven by Democratic and independent registration and that the long lines at the polls were mostly populated by Democrats.” -- Greg Mitchell