Record 2006 Off-Year Turnout of 85,375,277 Voters Proves Integrity of 2004 Election in Ohio and Electronic Voting Machines

   The complete and final turnout statistics for the 2006 off-year election show that over 85,375,277 voters cast ballots, compared to 80,596,188 voters in 2002.  This increase of 4,795,989 is almost 6%, far less than the over 16% increase in the presidential race of 2004.

   Off-year elections are notoriously difficult to compare.  Whereas there is a presidential race in every state every four years, the fact that only one-third of the senate is elected in an off-year election means that the election cycle replicates itself only once every twelve years.  For example, all the Senators elected in 2006 will be up for re-election in 2012, a presidential year.  So, it won't be until 2018 that this same crop of Class I Senators will be seeking re-election in an off-year.  The 2006 election was the mirror image of the election twelve years ago, 1994 when the Republican's Contract on America turned Congress Republican in the second year of Bill Clinton's first term.  In 2006, the same voters in the same states turned Congress Democratic for the last two years of George Bush's second term.

   Examining individual states makes the point.  Louisiana's turnout fell almost one-quarter: 312,239 (-24.64%).  The reason is that in 2006 there were no statewide races in Louisiana and many congressional representatives there run without major party opposition, while in 2002 there was a hotly contested Senate race.  Maryland also saw a steep decline of 569,788 (-23.95%).  Although Maryland had a governor's race in both 2002 and 2006, voters there turned out in droves four years ago to elect the first Republican Governor in a generation and thwart the political ambitions of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, who was seeking to become the Democratic Governor of Maryland.

   On the opposite side of the coin, Virginia's turnout increased by almost half (44.33%) because Senator John Warner ran for re-election four years ago without a Democratic opponent, whereas in 2006 there was a hotly contested race between incumbent Senator George Allen and former Navy Secretary, novelist, and Vietnam veteran James Webb III who left the Republican Party and ran as a Democrat specifically to oppose the war in Iraq.  Nebraska also had an increase in turnout of almost one-third.

   But the Buckeye State wins pride of place for the importance of its increase in turnout.  In 2004, Ohio's turnout increased 926,454 over the 2000 election.  That was an increase of 19.31% over the Ohio vote in 2000, and was 5.67% of the nationwide increase in turnout in 2004.  In 2006, Ohio generated an almost identical increase, 888,100; only 38,354 fewer than the 2004 Ohio presidential race that was targeted by both sides and that received international media attention. Ohio's 2006 voter increase was 26.94%, but a whopping 18.58% of the national increase.  Of course, the major difference is that in 2004 every state increased its voter turnout, while in 2006 some lost while others gained.

   In 2006, Ohio's massive 888,100 vote increase in turnout has passed virtually unnoticed.  The voters turned out to throw out the Republicans.  The Democrats won both the Statehouse and the United States Senate seat.  There were no allegations of voter suppression, even though the turnout in 2006 was 1.5 million fewer, compared to the presidential race in 2004: 4.2 million versus 5.7 million.  Furthermore, because the Democrats won the races, there were no allegations that the direct reading electronic voting machines don't work right. 

   Voters in Ohio were sending a clear message that they can turn out in droves: to save Bush's presidency in 2004; and to throw the Republicans out in 2006.  People  everywhere should appreciate the effort of the Ohio voters to demonstrate their own integrity and the integrity of the 2004 presidential election.

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Contact: Joshua Leinsdorf