As far as voter turnout, 2012’s got nothing on 2008

For months, poll watchers knew that not as many voters would be coming out as did in 2008.

Then came Superstorm Sandy.

Reports say turnout for a presidential election in New Jersey was at an all time low of 60 percent of registered voters. The previous low was 70 percent for the George Bush vs. Al Gore match-up in 2000.

“The state government there made a wonderful effort to allow email voting and in fact other kinds of voting but you cannot make up for a huge natural disaster,” said Temple political science professor David Adamany.

He says Sandy is only partly responsible. In Pennsylvania, where storm damage was much less, turnout dropped four percentage points from 2008.

“The enthusiasm for President Obama is plainly lower than it was four years ago,” said Adamany. “And there were some conservatives who were discontented with Gov. Romney and probably preferred to withhold their vote.”

The numbers suggest that Adamany is correct on both counts. Although Obama drew fewer voters in the Keystone State this time around, Mitt Romney actually wound up with less voter support than John McCain got in the last election.

Nationally, with some ballots yet to be counted, 14 million fewer Americans voted this year compared with 2008.

Pennsylvania breakdown:

	Voted Democrat	Voted Republican	Voted Other	Total Vote #	Total Registered	Percentage of those Registered who voted
Pa. 2000	2,485,967	2,281,127	145,091	4,912,185	7,781,997	63.1%
Pa. 2004	2,938,095	2,793,847	33,822	5,765,764	8,366,663	68.9%
Pa. 2008	3,276,363	2,655,885	62,909	5,995,157	8,755,588	68.5%
Pa. 2012 (98.8% reporting)	2,865,690	2,581,357	68,613	5,515,660	8,511,217	64.8%
Philadelphia 2000	449,182	100,959	11,035	561,176	1,025,259	54.7%
Philadelphia 2004	542,205	130,099	1,765	674,069	1,062,439	63.4%
Philadelphia 2008	595,980	117,221	4,128	717,329	1,126,760	63.6%
Philadelphia 2012	551,070	90,989	4,710	646,769	1,099,418	58.8%
Bucks County 2012	158,085	154,242	3,914	316,241	435,577	72.6%
Montgomery County 2012	230,493	173,176	4,375	408,044	554,361	73.6%
Chester County 2012	115,078	116,905	2,634	234,617	435,577	53.8%
Delaware County 2012	160,452	102,688	2,717	265,857	397,287	66.9%