# So, how high was your area's voter turnout for the presidential election? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 12, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800 "2012-12-12T05:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/1 "2012-12-12T05:28:11Z")
In Wisconsin, just over 70% of all eligible voters cast ballots (“eligible voters” is an estimate of the number of citizen residents of voting age). [3,071,434 votes cast](http://fox6now.com/2012/11/29/wisconsin-set-voter-turnout-record-in-fall-2012-general-election/), out of 3,515,296 registered voters (as of Nov 5, [according to this WI gov document](http://gab.wi.gov/sites/default/files/publication/65/registeredvotersbymunicipality_pdf_11336.pdf)) shows that 87% of registered voters cast ballots state-wide! The city of Madison had 186, 371 registered voters on Nov. 5., and 150, 198 votes cast, or just under 81% of registered voters. I haven’t found an estimate of “eligible voters” for Madison. Still, Madison is vaunted as a very politically active city, and it’s interesting that it under-performed the state as a whole by a significant percentage. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/2 "2012-12-12T06:51:24Z")
Canton MA had 80% ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/3 "2012-12-12T21:09:36Z")
Los Angeles Califonia 51.6 % 2,368,283 ballots cast Which is pretty much our average. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/4 "2012-12-12T22:00:10Z")
Judging by the plumes of pot smoke rising from the polling places, pretty high. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/5 "2012-12-13T06:38:04Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Los Angeles Califonia 51.6 % > > 2,368,283 ballots cast > > Which is pretty much our average. Where did you find those numbers? [The CA Secretary of State Website](http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/status/) says Los Angeles County had a 68% voter turnout with 3,236,704 votes cast out of 4,758,437 registered voters. Statewide it was 71.3% with 13,013,098 votes cast out of 18,245,970 registered voters. No clue about Redondo Beach. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/6 "2012-12-13T09:25:09Z")
Reid (NSW) 91.06% formal votes cast, down from 94.98% in 2007. Oh … the US Presidential election … never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/7 "2012-12-13T09:27:54Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Where did you find those numbers? > > [The CA Secretary of State Website](http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/status/) says Los Angeles County had a 68% voter turnout with 3,236,704 votes cast out of 4,758,437 registered voters. > > Statewide it was 71.3% with 13,013,098 votes cast out of 18,245,970 registered voters. > > No clue about Redondo Beach. The OP was asking about votes out of all eligible voters. That’s going to be a significantly smaller then the fraction of registered voters that went to the polls. (still, kind of crazy that 30% of the people that bother to register to vote skip a major election). ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/8 "2012-12-13T11:00:05Z")
I’m not sure. Is there a site that has statistics on all precincts in the country, all together? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/9 "2012-12-13T15:19:22Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > The OP was asking about votes out of all eligible voters. That’s going to be a significantly smaller then the fraction of registered voters that went to the polls. > > (still, kind of crazy that 30% of the people that bother to register to vote skip a major election). No, I was asking about turnout in whatever form is available. I provided both percentage of “eligible” and “registered” voters state-wide because the numbers were there – and I was even rather surprised that the state came up with an estimate of total eligible voters. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/10 "2012-12-13T15:21:48Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > I’m not sure. Is there a site that has statistics on all precincts in the country, all together? I asked about turnout around where you live, not turnout everywhere. Though that would be interesting too. I was pretty stunned that WI had such a high turnout among registered voters – I don’t recall ever seeing such a large percentage in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/11 "2012-12-13T15:40:02Z")
There are 512,937 adults in DC. 483,600 of them are registered. 294,254 voted. That’s 57.3% of the adult population, and 60.8% of registered voters. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/12 "2012-12-13T15:56:37Z")
My county (Alachua, Florida) clocked in at 73% - that was down from 80% in 2008. I couldn’t find any data specific to Gainesville. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/13 "2012-12-13T20:34:38Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Where did you find those numbers? > > [The CA Secretary of State Website](http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/status/) says Los Angeles County had a 68% voter turnout with 3,236,704 votes cast out of 4,758,437 registered voters. > > Statewide it was 71.3% with 13,013,098 votes cast out of 18,245,970 registered voters. > > No clue about Redondo Beach. [http://www.laalmanac.com/election/el02.htm](http://www.laalmanac.com/election/el02.htm) LA Almanac. Google search turns up a variety of numbers. Didn’t think to look at Sect of State site though. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-high-was-your-areas-voter-turnout-for-the-presidential-election/643800/14 "2012-12-17T14:57:33Z")
I don’t know about everyone else in my area, but I was at a nice even [3] walking into the booth…