Last week’s Indiana primary put an exclamation point on one of the big civic-political trends of the year: Democratic turnout is surging.
Of all adult Hoosiers who could vote, 27.6 percent went to the polls to choose between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the fourth-strongest turnout this year — and more than 20 percentage points higher than in either of the state’s previous two presidential primaries. And something similar has happened across the country:
State by State: Click Here to View Chart
In Washington, D.C., and the 26 states that have had contested Democratic primaries all three times, turnout of the voting-age, citizen population in those contests has averaged 19 percent in 2008 — 9 points higher than in 2004 (when John Kerry wrapped up the nomination by early March) and 10 points higher than in 2000 (when Al Gore did likewise, and the GOP nominating contest was harder-fought.) More than one-quarter of adults showed up to vote Democratic in D.C., Vermont, New Hampshire, Indiana, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Ohio.
And 17 places recorded percentage-point turnout gains in double digits since 2000. The Republicans have not seen the same phenomenon; the turnout of adults for GOP primaries topped 20 percent only in New Hampshire this year, and in 15 states turnout was a smaller percentage this year than in 2000.