There’s a fair amount of good news regarding turnout in the primary elections we’ve seen so far. And, of course, some decidedly mixed news.
The Pew Research Center came out with a study of the numbers from the 31 states that have held primaries so far. Here’s some key findings:
Good: In Democratic primaries for the House, 13.6M people have voted so far this year, compared to 7.4M in the last midterm at a similar point in the election cycle. The total number of votes cast is 84% higher than the previous midterms. Pew thinks this is due to a lot more contested primaries this cycle.
Bad: While a lot more people are voting, that’s still only 10.1% of registered voters.
Note: Turnout for Republican primaries for House seats has also increased (8.6M to 10.7M), but this increase is much smaller than in Democratic primaries.
Good: Turnout is also higher in the Senate and gubernatorial races, although the increases have been similar for both Democrats and Republicans.
Good: Total turnout for governor’s races in the 20 states that have held elections increased from 14.9M to 22.7M.
You can read the full report at Pew Research Center here.
Overall, these numbers put some good statistics behind the prevailing sentiment that there is a lot of enthusiasm on the Democrats’ side. Yeah!! But there is clearly still a lot of work to do to increase awareness and turnout overall. To get some ideas on how you can help with that, read this How To Guide to Winning the November Elections.
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10% of registered voters? Wow…..that’s so anemic. We sure have a long way to go!
Indeed. I’m thrilled with the big uptick of votes in the Democratic primaries but wow, midterm voting is still an uphill battle.