U.S. voter turnout
jumps, with Hawaii last

Hawaii came in dead last compared with other states in voter turnout for the 2004 presidential election, while the national average increased to the highest level since 1968, a report released yesterday shows.

The national presidential election turnout was 60.7 percent last year, up by 6.4 percentage points over 2000, the biggest election-to-election increase since 1952, according to the report by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. The center attributed the increase to deep divisions over the war in Iraq and intense voter registration drives.

The national center's calculations put Hawaii last among the states with a 48.9 percent turnout of eligible voters, everyone over 18. But state election figures showed a 67 percent turnout based on the number of registered voters.

"That skews our turnout rate," Hawaii's chief election officer, Dwayne Yoshina, said. "We have a large number of nonresident military and a large number of aliens, people not really eligible to vote."

The turnout of eligible voters here was closer to 50.8 percent after nonresident aliens and military are subtracted, said state election spokesman Rex Quidilla.

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But under the rankings released yesterday, Hawaii still would come in last with a 50.8 percent turnout.

He said the difference has to be explained frequently because the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Election Commission also use figures based on the voting-age population.

"It's an especially crude tool when you apply it to the state of Hawaii; it doesn't take into account the population composition," Quidilla said.

In Hawaii, 431,662 people voted out of about 647,000 registered voters. The adult, or eligible voter, population in the state was about 848,000, according to the last U.S. Census, Quidilla said.

Nationwide, 122.3 million voted in the Nov. 3 elections, according to CSAE.

In 1968, when Republican Richard Nixon beat Democrat Hubert Humphrey, 61.9 percent of those eligible nationally cast ballots. Turnout stayed below 60 percent during the eight presidential elections in between.

About the 2004 election, the report said: "Both parties spent unprecedented resources on mobilization.

"In certain respects the 2004 election was all about motivation and mobilization. The substantial increase in turnout was due largely to the deep emotions surrounding the presidency of George W. Bush."

Voting by state Percentage of turnout of eligible voters in the 2004 presidential election, by state: Top five Minnesota: 77.3 Maine: 75.3 Wisconsin: 73.9 New Hampshire: 71.9 Oregon: 71.2 Bottom five Mississippi: 52.9 Texas: 52.2 South Carolina: 51.9 Arkansas: 51.3 Hawaii: 48.9 Source: Committee for the Study of the American Electorate

Bush received 62,028,719 votes, or 50.8 percent. Democrat John Kerry received 59,028,550 votes, or 48.3 percent.

Both candidates drew more votes than their parties' nominees in 2000, CSAE said. President Bush gained more than 11.5 million votes over the 50.5 million votes he received four years earlier. Kerry won some 8 million more votes than the 51 million received by Al Gore in 2000.

Even so, 78 million eligible citizens did not vote -- considerably more than the number of votes won by either candidate.

The modern record for voter turnout was 1960, when 65 percent of those eligible cast ballots.

The CSAE report was based on final and official registration and voting statistics certified by the chief election officers of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the number of citizens age 18 and over.

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