Seven states performed well in both the 2008 and 2010 elections including Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. The Pew Charitable Trusts released an Elections Performance Index (Index) that, for the first time ever, examines election administration performance across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. […] Read more »
Turnout’s uncertain trajectory
… Will the Obama youth and minority surge cohort keep on voting? Were the 2008 and 2012 elections instrumental in instilling a habit of voting that lasts lifetimes? Or will young and minority voters, especially Latinos, begin behaving like their peer cohorts of decades ago, lagging the participation rates of […] Read more »
What Does Public Support in Obama’s Second Inaugural Speech?
Inaugural speeches are often criticized as long on rhetoric and short on substance. But President Obama’s second inaugural address on Monday was surprisingly specific about his second-term goals. … Polls show that the president has at least a slim majority of Americans in his corner on almost all of the […] Read more »
Americans Call for Term Limits, End to Electoral College
Even after the 2012 election in which Americans re-elected most of the sitting members of the U.S. House and Senate — as is typical in national elections — three-quarters of Americans say that, given the opportunity, they would vote “for” term limits for members of both houses of Congress. … […] Read more »
Democrats Dread 2014 Drop-Off
… It’s no mystery why Democrats generally perform better in presidential years while Republicans tend to excel in midterm cycles: Lower midterm turnouts tend to skew the electorate toward older, white and/or more affluent voters. Given the growing cleavage in recent decades between partisan preferences of white and non-white voters, […] Read more »
The Growing Electoral Clout of Blacks Is Driven by Turnout, Not Demographics
Blacks voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than whites, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, election day exit poll data and vote totals from selected cities […] Read more »