Voting

In the spirit of Blog the Vote I thought I would put up my own little election story here.

I have voted in every possible election since I was eligible (because I have a summer birthday I began at age 17!) - that includes primary, school board, library, etc. I have never seen as many people show up to vote as I saw this morning. My wife and I showed up early this morning and were in line for about an hour. Our neighbors, who have the misfortune to have last names late in the alphabet, waited nearly two hours! Turnout in some counties in this area has been forecast near 80%.

Usually when we see long voting lines, we think of a brand new democracy, a country where people have only just won the right to vote. At home in the US we have become accustomed to much lower turnout. It was a very refreshing change, and for once, I didn't mind waiting in line.

Correlation Between Voting Method and Turnout?

A friend of mine who lives in College Park, Maryland was recently complaining about how his vote in the presidential election doesn't matter because Maryland always goes overwhelmingly for the Democrats. He was wondering if there was any research regarding a relationship between voting method (winner take all, proportional representation, instant runoff, etc.) and turnout.

I found a wealth of information on this subject at FairVote.org and I definitely recommend the site (which is non-partisan) to anyone interested in the subject.