Secretary of State Michael Mauro, the commissioner of elections in Iowa, held a statehouse news conference this morning. Read about it and listen to it here.
Just throwing some numbers about: 72 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the 2004 election. The actual number of voters was 1,521,966, an all-time record number of voters. The record percentage turnout was in 1992 when 80.5 percent of registered voters in Iowa cast ballots. The raw total of votes cast in 1992 was 1,371,979.
You want more numbers? Fine. In the 2004 election, 460,059 of the votes cast in Iowa were cast early by absentee ballot or at the satellite voting centers set up around the state. So far this year, only 104,077 requests have come into the county auditors for absentee ballots.
How about those Iowans who are living overseas/out-of-the-country but have maintained a legal residence in Iowa (think soldiers on active duty)? Over 3200 of those Iowans have requested an absentee ballot for the 2008 election. Back in 2004, 2315 absetee ballots were cast by Iowans who aren’t living here right now.
As of today, there are 2,107,055 registered voters in Iowa. That’s 92 percent of the Iowans who are eligible to register to vote. The party breakdown is as follows: 722,674 are Democrats; 620,326 are Republicans; 763,566 are "no party" or so-called Independent voters and the remaing 489 are either Green or Libertarian Party voters.
Tomorrow — Thursday, September 25, 2008 — Iowans can begin casting votes for the general election.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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