Voter Mobilization

COLUMBUS – Setting up a possible showdown with Gov. Ted Strickland, the Ohio House passed a bill Tuesday that eliminates the “golden week”– a period when voters could register and vote by absentee ballot on the same day.

Proponents of Senate Bill 380, sponsored by Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Green Township, said the overlapping registration period could lead to voter fraud. Opponents said there’s been just a handful of illegal votes in recent years, and that the change will discourage new voters trying to avoid long lines on Election Day.  read more »

This year’s general election follows a primary season in which more than 6.5 million young people under the age of 30 participated. Moreover, in the 2008 California primary youth voter turnout rose six percentage points compared to the 2000 primary.

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Data Shows 24 Million Young Adults Voted, 4 Million More than in 2004

Washington, DC - November 5, 2008  read more »

Throughout the north side of Pittsburgh, one of the city's three major Black districts, they lined up before dawn, hundreds deep in the 47-degree weather as if they were waiting for history to be made. Even after the polling places opened into an instant crawl, they kept coming.

And they kept coming all day.  read more »

Marking a historic shift, Sen. Barack Obama won a majority of Florida's Hispanic vote statewide and nearly tied Sen. John McCain in Miami-Dade, where Republicans had long dominated the Hispanic vote.

No Democratic presidential candidate had ever achieved either milestone since the exit polling of Hispanics first began in the 1980s, pollsters say.

Nationwide, Obama won the Hispanic vote by a wider margin, garnering 66 percent to McCain's 32 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.  read more »

Record turnout among Hispanic voters helped push Barack Obama over the top in an election that signals the emerging political clout of the nation's fastest-growing demographic group.

About 10 million Hispanics cast a ballot, up from 7.8 million in the 2004 presidential contest, accounting for 8% of the national voting public, exit polls show. Latinos voted for Sen. Obama over Sen. John McCain nationally by 66% to 32%, marking a dramatic shift toward Democrats from 2004, when more than 50% supported Sen. John Kerry and 40% voted for President Bush.  read more »

WASHINGTON (AP) — America voted in record numbers, standing in lines that snaked around blocks and in some places in pouring rain. Voters who queued up Tuesday and the millions who balloted early propelled 2008 to what one expert said was the highest turnout in a century.

It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate.  read more »

All Things Considered, November 5, 2008 · Latino voters dramatically increased their participation in this year's election, and they voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, which may have made the difference in a number of states.  read more »

About 22-24 Million Young Americans Go to the Polls:
Up by at Least 2.2 Million from 2004

Young voters favor Obama over McCain 66% to 32%; 18% of all voters were young

Conference Call-in Press Briefing to Discuss 2008 Youth Vote, 2 PM ET, Nov. 5
The dial-in number for the call is 877-844-6052 (no access code needed)

Medford/Somerville, MA - Preliminary CIRCLE projections show the turnout for young Americans (ages 18-29) is higher than in 2004, a year of significant increase, and is much higher than it was in 2000 and 1996.  read more »

WASHINGTON, DC-- Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) participated Tuesday in an election that will go down in history with high turnout rates-- especially among minorities, new voters, and young voters. APIAVote partners and coalitions in 14 states turned out thousands of voters yesterday in the efforts to increase civic participation in the fastest growing minority community in the nation.  read more »