We did our share!
From: Witzel-Behl, Maribeth
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 3:05 PM
To: ALL ALDERS
Subject: 67% Voter TurnoutThe City of Madison had 67% turnout yesterday with 109, 671 voters. This was the highest turnout we have ever had for a Gubernatorial Election since we began tracking voter turnout trends in 1984.
Turnout was comparable to some of our Presidential Elections. We had 66% turnout for the 1996 Presidential Election, 67% turnout for the 1992 Presidential Election, and 65% turnout for the 1988 Presidential Election.
Exception to this is among UW students, where turnout was WAY lower than in 2006 — about 2,500 votes, which is enough to move the needle in a close election. This needs to be fixed.
Which wards are you counting, do you mean UW students who live on campus?
No, on and off campus. Comparing Doyle in 2006 and Barrett in 2010, Ward 45 (off campus) was down 40 percent. Ward 47 (dorms) was down 30 percent. Overall we lost about 2500 votes in the governor’s race in 14 student-heavy wards compared with four years ago.
Eric
I only skimmed the returns, but my impression was that GOP vote may up in the student districts over 2008 and 2006 (as a percentage and maybe with 2006 as an absolute number). Have you looked at this?
Eric – so, in your analysis, I’d be counted as a student? 🙂 I was guessing 39 was was up, wasn’t it?