Report finds GOP mobilized turnout more effectively than Democrats, independents on the rise

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans did a more effective job than Democrats in getting their parties' voters to turn out for the 2000 presidential election, a voter report shows.

Democratic voter registration continued a steady decline that started in the 1960s, according to the study released Thursday by a nonpartisan research group.

"We had an increase in voter turnout because of an increase in grass-roots activity," said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

Voter turnout was at 51.2 percent of the voting age population, or 105,399,313 voters, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from 1996.

Much of the turnout increase was in the "battleground states" where the presidential campaigns were concentrated. The turnout increase in those states was twice the turnout increase elsewhere.

"The Republicans did a better job and used their money more effectively than the Democrats in grass-roots work," Gans said.

Republicans increased their turnout in every state and the District of Columbia. The Democratic Party increased turnout in 29 states and lost in 21 states.

Gans suggested this was due partly to the depressed voter turnout the GOP had in 1996. He also cited the larger financial commitment the party made to voter turnout, while Democrats relied more on outside groups like labor, blacks and environmentalists.

"When you're right on the issues, you don't have to spend as much money to turn out and vote for you. We have a number of groups who are well organized and with us on the issues who do a great job of turning out voters," said Bill Buck, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

Registration went down to an estimated 65 percent of the voting age population despite the National Voter Registration Act, known as the motor voter law, as well as the increasing availability of online voter forms and other efforts to make registration easier.

It was the first drop in registration since the motor voter law was enacted in 1995.

Some election reforms such as early voting and all-mail voting have done little to help turnout, and in the case of early voting may have actually hurt turnout in some states.

Of all the reforms in election laws, the most effective at enhancing voter turnout appeared to be election day registration, now used in a handful of states.

A significant development was the continuing rise in the number of people unwilling to identify with either party, Gans said. He estimated that independents make up about a fifth of the electorate now, compared with about 1 percent in the 1920s.

Democrats make up about a third of the electorate and continue to have a registration edge on Republicans, who make up about a fourth, he said. Democrats made up almost half of the electorate in 1984, the year of Ronald Reagan's re-election.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2001