Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Stunning

I can't think of another word to describe these figures:

A record number of Ohioans are registered to vote for the Nov. 4 election, when officials are predicting a record voter turnout with the hard-fought presidential race in the Buckeye State.

Nearly 8.2 million people are registered in Ohio, after 665,949 new voters were added to the rolls since the beginning of the year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced today after Monday's registration deadline.

That means about 94 percent of all eligible voters in Ohio are registered, based on U.S. Census estimates of Ohioans 18 years and older as of July 2007.

Brunner is predicting 80 percent voter turnout this fall, which would mean 6.5 million Ohioans would cast ballots. By comparison, 5.7 million votes were cast in the 2004 presidential election in the state.

This is a testament to the incredible interest voters are taking in this year's elections. Ninety-four percent! Ohio doesn't track voter registrations by party, but the state has been an area of intense focus for Obama's grassroots campaign; can anyone believe that even half of the projected 800,000 voters over the 2004 totals will be voting Republican? I don't.

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