National Voter turnout near all-time high with 120 million people

SIUC students living at Mae Smith and Schneider towers surpassed previous county voter turnout percentages by 13 percent, with 724 of the 940 registered voters in the 23rd precinct rushing the polls to fill out ballots, said Jackson County Clerk Larry Reinhardt.

The heavy turnout on campus was part of what many pundits had predicted would be a presidential election that would go down in history. Taking heed, voters swarmed to the polling booths nationally Tuesday, nearly breaking voter turnout records.

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According to the Associated Press, 120 million people – or almost 60 percent of registered voters – either went to the polls or cast provisional or absentee ballots. This year’s turnout is the highest since 1960, when 63.1 percent of the population voted in Sen. John F. Kennedy’s victory over Richard M. Nixon.

The 2000 election had an average turn out, with just more than 54 percent of registered voters casting ballots in George W. Bush’s narrow victory over Democrat Al Gore.

Election officials in Chicago estimated that nearly 77 percent of its registered residents voted this year. Mike Lawrence, director of the University’s Public Policy Institute, said he was surprised by the city’s turnout.

“The outcome of the presidential and U.S. Senate races in Illinois were almost a foregone conclusion. And yet, we saw this overwhelming turnout,” Lawrence said. “I think people felt their vote mattered. The 2000 presidential election removed doubts that people did have about whether their vote mattered – that it’s important to vote.”

In Jackson County, Reinhardt said 26,490 residents cast ballots – an increase from the previous record of 25,000 set in 1992.

Younger voters across the nation accounted for 17 percent of the total vote – a 3 percent increase from four years ago.

In the 18- to 29-year-old voting demographic, 11 percent cast their first ballot Tuesday. Those voters gave Sen. John Kerry a 55 percent to 43 percent advantage over Bush.

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Presidential elections, Lawrence said, tend to attract more public attention because the campaigning season is in full force and reinforcing voter importance.

“The turnout was encouraging,” Lawrence said. “I hope that young people will stay involved. I hope it’s not just this election or the war in Iraq that promoted turnout. I hope young people stay involved, because we need them involved.”