… The total votes cast in the 2012 presidential election were down by more than 2 million from four years earlier, while the midterm vote last fall for the House of Representatives (the only office contested in all 50 states in a midterm election) dropped by more than 8.5 million votes from 2010. It marked the first time since 1996-98 that the turnout declined in back-to-back national elections.
What has happened? Surveys point to an increasingly busy and mobile society, where voting is not a high priority for many people. Changes in registration and voting procedures in the states have been a mixed bag — easing the process of casting a ballot in some states, tightening it in others. But there has also apparently been a change in the way Americans view their electoral choices. CONT.
Rhodes Cook, Sabato’s Crystal Ball