I'm stunned by the reports of exceptionally low turnout for this election.

[Laurian]

That was surprising to me after the rolling reports of early voting outpacing previous years. Does that mean that massively fewer voted on Election Day? Then how do we account for the lines at the polls yesterday. I'm frickin confused!

[msongs]

1. lowest ever in hawaii nt

[J_J_]

8. is this observation?

or what the media reported?

[kelliekat44]

2. Put on the conspiracy hats. Some of those results are troubling based on exit polling. nt

[Laurian]

5. I'm not generally into conspiracies, but my expectation

was for record turnout based on the reporting about early voting, but it turned out to be the opposite. All last night, I wondered how the Republicans increased their turnout so much.....apparently they didn't. The Democrats didn't vote???? That makes these losses so much harder to understand and accept.

[J_J_]

10. very troubling results- if it were Russia, the US would be screaming election fraud

and Jimmy Carter would be on his way over.

dropping votes may be the new way to do election fraud for these corrupt bastards

[AndyTiedye]

3. Long Lines as People Tried to Vote and Were Turned Away?

We know that some states were purging voters from the rolls simply because someone in another state had the same name.
Others were enforcing new voter ID requirements that many voters could not satisfy.

You only get counted in the "turnout" if they let you vote.

[csziggy]

4. It was low here in Leon County Florida

56.4% - the turnout in 2010 was 60% while 2012 was about 75%. 56.4% is really low for this county! Of course, the mail in votes have not been completely counted so this is an unofficial figure.

The total number of registered voters has dropped, too. It was 190571 in 2012. This year it is 191,780.

I guess we need to get more people registered AND get out the vote!

[mattclearing]

15. 191780 is more than 190571. nt

[csziggy]

16. Hmm - tireder than I thought - I read it as 195071

Either I mis-read or I mis-copied the figures! I'll go back and re-check tomorrow.

I've spent the last week looking over figures to see if my husband can retire at the end of the year. The answer seems to be a resounding "YES!" But I've been doing more looking at numbers in the last week than I have since I closed my business. It's burning me out.

[mattclearing]

18. No worries! Just alarmed at the possibility that it dropped...

And relieved that it hadn't.

[Dwayne Hicks]

6. Here in NJ

Lowest mid-term turn-out in history. The only exception was the special election last year which was lower.

[J_J_]

7. Many threads on DU were started discussing the high voter turnout in the poster's areas

In my area...

A steady stream of people filled the booths around him and several polling locations reported higher-than-normal voter turnouts on election day.

At the Challenger Learning Center, in Kenai, more than 500 voters cast their ballots, said volunteer Carl Glick.

“Normally, we are in the 300s here,” he said. “At least 150 more people came out than is normal.”

Also in Kenai, Carol Freas at the Old Kenai Mall, said more than 950 people had turned up to vote.

While the number is significantly more than the average for local elections, it is not unusual for gubernatorial and state races to raise awareness and voter interest, Freas said.

Several smaller communities saw higher turnouts as well.

At the Ninilchik Senior Center Will Bauman said 519 people had voted.

“We had a fantastic turnout,” he said. “Just a continuous flow of people. Everybody says this is the most we’ve had for quite a number of years.”

Jodie Titus, a volunteer at the Nikiski Fire Station No. 1, said the 996 voters officials saw were reminiscent of a presidential election.

“This is the highest we’ve had this year,” she said.

In Anchor Point, Bobby Ness said volunteers had seen 777 people cast ballots.

“That’s a whole lot more than we normally see,” she said. “It has been really steady. At times we’ve had people backing up. It has been really good for us, we’re real excited.”

The progressive/environmental initiatives passed with 65%

Something is not adding up.

The polls said things would go differently but we are supposed to trust the election results....

....and there are many many reports of vote switching, election judge misdirection, and overt fraud at bradblog so we have no reason to trust the results.

[J_J_]

12. this is the sullivan rally with ted cruz

and they expect us to believe he won

[JI7]

9. I'm not

[ucrdem]

11. Reminds me of Nov. 2004.

Same deal. Same feeling. This time though I'm not confused.

[etherealtruth]

13. Many of us reported very light turnout

I posted this mid-day yesterday in a thread asking about voter turnout:

Blue district SE Michigan .... Extremely light

I did vote at ~10:30 AM (many people working), but am very concerned about voter turn out

[customerserviceguy]

14. Believe it

When my lady and I went to vote last night, we had no trouble finding a parking space at the community center where elections are held in our area. Two years ago, while we went right up to the table for our precinct to get our ballots, next to us was a table for a nearby precinct that has a lot of African-American voters. They were lined up a couple of dozen deep to get a ballot to vote for President Obama.

Last night, I saw only 3-4 people lined up at that precinct's table. I can only imagine it being worse in other areas of the country where black voters didn't turn out because there was not a candidate or issue on the ballot that they were intensely interested in.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. 13% in calif