Key 2006 Election Facts (As reported by the states)
• Nearly 173 million persons were registered to vote for the 2006 electionsâ€â€an increase of nearly 12.1 million since the 2002 midterm election.
• The number of registered voters declined since the 2004 Presidential election from nearly 176.2 million to 172.8 million.
• 76.6 percent of the Voting Age Population (VAP) was registered and 83.8 percent of the Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) was registered.
• More than 82 million ballots were cast or counted in the 2006 election.
• One percent of those participating cast a provisional ballot. (slightly more than 794,000 individuals)
The study also reports that the number of provisional ballots for 2006 was less than half of the levels reported for the 2004 election. However, a significantly larger share of the provisional ballots were counted. Only 64.5 percent of provisional ballots were counted in the 2004 election, compared to the 79.5 percent in the 2006 election. Nearly 30 percent of the jurisdictions across the country reported using multiple voting systems and the 2006 data show a dramatic rise in the number of jurisdictions using electronic systems. EAC’s 2004 study reported that just 9.3 percent of the jurisdictions reported using electronic voting equipment, but this increased to 53.6 percent two years later. The EAC survey found that 87.7 percent of the polling places allowed access for voters with disabilities, and 84.5 percent allowed these voters to cast a private ballot.
The Los Angeles Times reports on a study to appear in nature conducted at New York University and UCLA which shows political affiliation is linked to differences in how the brain processes information. Put short “conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences”.
It sounds interesting and follows other experiments that show similar results. The problem? I wouldn’t go racing out to declare these results as gospel truth anytime soon. The study was conducted on college students and only 43 of them, which wasn’t noted in the article but I asked the author. (Note a great deal of research like this is done with college students because they are the available population).
The article also did not note how many of those 43 were self appointed conservatives and how many were liberals and to what degree their political affiliation went. In addition there is an obvious point. Students who are in college tend to be liberal and they are open to new experiences. Their minds are developing because they are often outside their home environment/comfort zone, meeting new people and just experiencing things.
In addition we also know many of these students go on to become conservatives. There is the old expression “If you are conservative when you are twenty you are heartless if you are liberal when you are forty you are mindless” or something to that effect. So in the end if there are specific brain differences why would people change and/or how do they change physically?
Again interesting article and research but I don’t know if I would put much weight in it.
Hello everyone. It has been a bit since I’ve given a site update so I thought I would take a moment to do so.
I have the opposite problem of many Web managers out there. I have TOO MUCH content to provide, so much that there is barely anything here. Sounds kind of contradictory but its true. What I am lacking isn’t content or data but the time to actually bring it to you. See unlike all those fancy MSNBC/CNN type organizations ElectionGeek is a one man show. Just me, a laptop and a lot of data. A LOT of data.
I am playing around with a new site called Swivel. I am collecting data myself into spreadsheets and when I get a chance will upload to the site and make some charts and graphs for ElectionGeek and share. Until then I will post what I found off the site.
