More Republicans voted in this year's statewide primary elections than Democrats, according to a new study, marking the first time GOP turnout has exceeded Democratic turnout in midterm primaries since 1930. Republican turnout exceeded Democratic turnout in the primaries held through August 28 by more than four million votes, according to Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. While the average percentage of eligible citizens who voted in the GOP statewide primaries was the highest since 1970, the average percentage of eligible citizens who voted in Democratic primaries reached an 80-year low.
Gans cited voter dissatisfaction over the economy, as well as the intense primary battles within the Republican Party -- in part fueled by Tea Party challengers -- for the increase in Republican turnout.
More telling, however, is the low participation rates among Democrats, Gans said. He called it "the first tangible demonstration of what polls have been showing - a distinct lack of enthusiasm among the Democratic rank and file."
Gans reviewed the 35 statewide primaries held before September 1. The GOP had three more statewide contests than the Democrats-- in Indiana, South Dakota and Utah -- but just 826,603 votes were cast in those races. In other cases, such as the California Senate race, both parties held primaries, but the nominating contest was hotly contested on the GOP side while the result was a foregone conclusion on the Democratic side.
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Republican turnout increased in all but five states out of 35, according to Gans, and GOP statewide primary turnout reached new records in nine states -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
Democratic statewide primary turnout, meanwhile, fell to record lows in 10 states -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Gans also noted in his analysis that the combined turnout in the 32 states that had both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries exceeded turnout in 2006, but tied 1998 for the second-lowest turnout level ever.
"These figures speak to the falling away of an ever larger slice of the population from active political participation and the continuing decline in public involvement with the major political parties, reducing their ability to serve as forces of cohesion within the American polity," Gans said.
