When 120 million Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election it set a record as the largest voter turnout in U.S. history. By early accounts, the turnout in 2008 will be ever larger, although it may take days to determine if this is the case.
There is no national election in the United States, rather each state and the District of Columbia conducts individual elections, meaning national data on voter turnout can take some time to compile.
Reports of large voter turnout are particularly significant in a country where, in recent decades, barely half of eligible voters cast ballots. The high numbers estimated for 2008 speak not only to voter engagement and concern, but also to a willingness to set aside weeks of polling data and exercise their right to vote, even for long-shot candidates.
These large numbers of voters were willing to spend hours in line to cast their votes for change, pollster John Zogby told journalists at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center. Since April of 2007, Zogby’s polls have indicated that the American people wanted a change in direction.