Voter Turnout

This morning on the news they're predicting excellent turnout in Ohio (despite bad weather), i.e., about 50% of voters. And they're expecting respectable turnout in Texas too - 26%! I was pretty horrified to hear that - can there really be so few people who are interested in their government leadership???

Note: actual Texas turnout was a "record-breaking" 28%. I looked for a long time to find out what the denominator is for that figure, and finally found it here:

http://www.newsmax.com/politics/primaries_voting_problems/2008/03/05/77940.html

Some 3.7 million Texans _ 29 percent of the state's registered voters _ had cast ballots with about 85 percent of precincts reporting, said Scott Haywood, a spokesman for the Secretary of State. The state's previous turnout record was 2.7 million, set in 1988.


And check out this site, that shows rates by eligible voters - the numbers are shockingly low (around 15 - 20 %):

http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2008_Primaries.htm

I had to stop being so righteous though, when I investigated NY's turnout. I couldn't find actual figures, but an election official was predicting turnout around 35% for our Super Tuesday primary (more than Texas, but not that much!)