Voter Turnout
While President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry may not have a lot in common politically, they did manage to do one thing together; bring out the voters on November 2. Americans across the country showed up at the polls in droves yesterday, casting enough votes in this presidential election to create the highest percentage turnout since 1968.
According to nationwide reports, around 173 million people registered to vote this year, the largest number in history. One hundred and twenty million voters, or almost 60 percent of eligible voters, cast votes through early or absentee ballots or on Election Day. Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, told the Associated Press that Virginia, along with at least five other states and the District of Columbia, set new voter-turnout highs.
The Virginia State Board of Election's released unofficial election results on Wednesday afternoon that reported an increase of 339,222 votes from last year's elections. About 3,078,700 Virginians voted in this election, as opposed to 2,739,447 voters in the 2000 presidential election between then-Governor Bush and Vice-President Al Gore.
About 68 percent of registered voters cast ballots in this election with Bush receiving 1,656,349 of those votes, giving him 53.8 percent over Kerry's 45.3 percent.
Bush actually gained popularity in Virginia in the four years since the last election, in which Bush received 52.5 percent of the vote. He gained 218,859 votes and 1.3 percentage points in this year's election. Although Kerry won 178,202 more votes than Gore did in 2000, he could not pull off the heist for which Democrats had been hoping.
Hanover and Chesterfield Counties voted overwhelmingly for Bush, with each pulling in about 71 percent and 63 percent for the President, respectively. Votes were closer in Henrico County, where Bush won about 11,000 more votes than Kerry, leaving him with a 53.8 percent majority win. Contrarily, the City of Richmond gave the majority of its votes to Senator Kerry, who received a 70 percent majority. The figures in this story are based on unofficial results released from the Virginia State Board of Elections. 2004: Statewide precincts reporting: 2363 of 2406 (98.21 percent)
Registered Voters: 4,524,134
Total Voting: 3,078,675
Voter Turnout: 68.05 percent
Bush: 1,656,349 votes = 53.80 percent
Kerry: 1,395,492 votes = 45.33 percent
2000:
Total voting: 2,739,447
Bush: 1,437,490 votes = 52.5 percent
Gore: 1,217,290 votes = 44.4 percent City of Richmond Precincts Reporting: 68 of 70 (97.14 percent)
Registered Voters: 104,129
Total Voting: 70,827
Voter Turnout: 68.02 percent
Kerry: 49,731 votes = 70.21 percent
Bush: 20,606 votes = 29.09 percent Hanover County Precincts Reporting: 34 of 34 (100.00 percent)
Registered Voters: 61,936
Total Voting: 49,572
Voter Turnout: 80.04 percent
Bush: 35,398 votes = 71.41 percent
Kerry: 13,911 votes = 28.06 percent Henrico County Precincts Reporting: 93 of 93 (100.00 percent)
Registered Voters: 178,091
Total Voting: 133,320
Voter Turnout: 74.86 percent
Bush: 71,765 votes = 53.83 percent
Kerry: 60,810 votes = 45.61 percent Chesterfield County Precincts Reporting: 64 of 64 (100.00 percent)
Registered Voters: 183,190
Total Voting: 133,730
Voter Turnout: 73.00 percent
Bush: 83,695 votes =62.59 percent
Kerry: 49,311 votes = 36.87 percent At the Polls : Polls were packed across Richmond and the suburbs for Election Day 2004.
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