MR. GANS, PLEASE REPORT TO THE RE-EDUCATION CAMP:

Election Turnout Rose Slightly, to 39.3% : GOP Mobilization Credited; Participation Was Down in Some Democratic Areas (Edward Walsh, November 8, 2002, Washington Post)

A total of 78.7 million votes were cast on Tuesday, a turnout of 39.3 percent of all voting age citizens, according to Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, an independent elections expert. That was a slight increase from the 37.6 percent turnout in the previous midterm elections, in 1998, and interrupted a steady decline in voter participation, he said.

Now how is that helpful? Everyone knows the official media line on this election is that it was dispiriting and didn't fire anyone's imagination. If voter turnout actually went up it wrecks that conventional wisdom. Maybe Mr. Gans could run the numbers through a South Dakota voting machine and come up with a more favorable result? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 13, 2002 4:20 PM