January 15, 2005
USA! USA! USA!
By Jim Dallas
Karl-Thomas just noted it, but 60.7% turnout in last November's election. That's really super, especially considering we still have one of the world's largest prison populations, and we don't have mandatory voting like some countries or even same-day registration (in almost all states, that is).
All Americans should pat themselves on the back for their commitment to democracy and patriotic fervor.
Posted by Jim Dallas at January 15, 2005 05:26 PM
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"... especially considering we still have one of the world's largest prison populations"
WTF???? Is there really THAT big of a prison population that is eligible to vote but unable to do so?
Generally, turnout statistics are reported in terms of voting-age population.
But incarcerated persons can't vote, and in many states ex-cons can't either.
There's over about 1.25 million incarcerated people and about 2.7 million total ineligibles.
This drags down the entire turnout rate (because they're part of the denominator but systematically excluded from the numerator, in VAP turnout), by a few percentage points.
Because the U.S. has an incarceration rate that is , for example, three times the rate of Iran's and seven times that of Germany's, the impact on turnout statistics (as calculated with VAP) is considerably larger here than elsewhere.
See, for example, this site: http://elections.gmu.edu/VAP_VEP.htm
As well as this article:
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:keX6A46_UIAJ:www.charleston.net/stories/060103/wor_01jailbirds.shtml+u.s+prison+population+per+capita&hl=en&client=firefox-a
Needless to say, I blame the constitutionally-dubious War on Drugs.
Are you sure that the 60.7% figure is taken from a percentage of voting age popluation, as opposed to a percentage of registered voters? I have always understood the percentage to be based on the # of registered voters. Given that probably almost hald of those eliglbe are not registered, that means that only ca. 1/3 of elogible voters vote, which is the much more likely scenario.
What is the source of the 60.7% figure?
The turnout among % registered is well in excess of 60%; the figure above is Citizen VAP turnout.
The source is the article in Karl-Thomas's DNC post.
Registered turnout is usually pretty high; it's journalistic convention to report VAP-based turnout statistics.
I'm making an assumption, to be sure, but it's an educated one.
