Anyone Look At The Rhode Island Numbers? Republican Turnout Sucked.

[Mark E. Smith]

The hottest politcal story in the country today was the RI Republican race for
Senator. And did the GOP voters there turn out in numbers reflecting all of the
attention and excitement of this very important race?

Looks like the vaunted GOP "get out the vote" operation didn't actually deliver
the voters.

Senator

Chafee 33,685
Laffy 26,961 Total vote = 59,961

The Democratic race was a foregone conclusion, yet compare the turnout.

Whitehouse 65,627 (More than Chafee and Laffy Taffy combined!)
Young 8,463
Sheeler 6,387 Total vote = 80,477

Congress

Patrick Kennedy 33,956
2 GOPpers 16,974

Governor

Fogarty 68,149
Some Gop 50,853

Looks to me like the GOP voter just wasn't all that inspired to vote in a race that
the RNC pumped a whole lot of cash and manpower into, while Democrats turned
out in far greater numbers for races that were pretty much already decided.

Looks like the GOP can't get their folks out.


http://electionri.com/Results/TopTicket.htm

[Hissyspit]

1. Interesting. n/t

[Erika]

2. That's why this seat can be democratic

if we can get the turnout.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. That's not right

It was a huge turnout for a GOP primary. I think the previous record was 45,000. I was checking a Rhode Island blog tonight that was projecting the percentage of outstanding votes required for Laffey to catch Chafee, and the high end of their estimate was 55,000 total votes. The three totals they used were 35,000, 45,000 and 55,000 and it went above the high number by many thousand. Of course, the wild card is how many independents participated.

When that primary was being discussed this spring and summer, many people estimated the Republican primary would have 25,000 votes. We cant look at numbers in relation to ours to make a judgement. The registration advantage for Democrats is overwhelming.

[welshTerrier2]

4. you are correct

several political analysts on channel 10 and channel 12 from Providence said that the turnout on the republican side was very strong ...

as for the issue you raised about independents, these same analysts indicated that many independents voted in the republican primary ... they speculated this was due to how close the race was ...

it's not clear what independents will do in November ...

[Nite Owl]

5. Aren't there just a lot

more dems in RI though? What percentage was it of registered voters?

[primative1]

7. Lol

Rhode Island makes Massachusetts look like a conservative bastion.
If they got 45,000 people to vote in a GOP primary I would bet 3/4 of them are pretenders. I lived in RI in the 80s and several friends of mine ran for local seats just for the thrill of getting their names on ballots. Typically if you file to run for anything as a republican you will be unopposed. Unfortunatly for them and (fortunatly for us) they didnt get any votes :)

[displacedtexan]

6. I noticed the same thing about Washington DC.

Of course, over 70% of the District's population is Democrat;
however, very few Repukes took the time to vote in their primary here yesterday.

Hope it's a sign of things to come!

[Mass]

8. RI is a Democratic state. The GOPturnout was40 % higher than in

previous years.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. Registered Dems must outnumber them 4 to 1

in RI. Anyone got the stats?