Saving American Elections: A Diagnosis and Prescription for a He ...

between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did not end until all of the states had held their primaries and caucuses. Finally, the fact that the contest would conclude with either the first African American or first female to win a major party nomination—plus the charisma of Obama and the media’s fascination with the Clintons—helped keep the media attention riveted on the race. In summary, these conditions plus the extreme discontent with the incumbent administration led to “perfect storm” conditions for stimulating participation. Ultimately,

Turnout for Republican contests increased, but not nearly as dramatically; this was not surprising because their contest was well over before all of the states were able to participate.

Despite the favorable conditions, the overall turnout in presidential primaries of both parties was 30.3 percent, shy of the record 30.9 percent turnout in 1972 (in which an incumbent ran for the Republican nomination and candidates far less compelling than Obama and Clinton ran in the Democratic contest).²⁰ See figure 1.3 for the trend since 1972, and note its downward movement until 2008. The overall primary turnout masks differences state by state. The highest turnout, as is typical given the amount of attention the state receives from candidates and the press, was in New Hampshire, where 51.9 percent of the eligible electorate turned out, beating the previous record in 2000 of 43.6 percent.²¹ The lowest turnout was in Louisiana, where 16.4 percent of the eligible electorate voted; in eight states turnout did not exceed 25 percent.²² The percentage of eligible citizens who participated in the presidential caucuses exceeded 10 percent only in Iowa, the first and most-watched caucus in the nation. See figure 1.4 for presidential caucus participation in other states.

Turning to state elections (the level of government most people tell pollsters they feel closest to), voter turnout levels are also well below