Among the most dramatic findings reported in the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) is a large decline in turnout rates among young people, particularly those who were first eligible to vote in the 2012 election. In contrast, older persons' turnout rates remained steady, or even increased. Given...

An important election survey that reveals patterns in voting and registration is the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey November Voting and Registration Supplement, or CPS for short. The 2012 CPS reveals insights to major stories about the election divined from the exit polls: the changing face of the...

A sensible election administration reform is quietly sweeping the nation. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 states have implemented or recently adopted online voter registration, either initiating a new registration or updating an old one. Twelve other states have legislation winding its way through the...

Colorado legislators are contemplating changes to their election laws this week that may result in higher turnout. A report issued by Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler figures prominently in the deliberations, which triumphantly touts "the most successful (election) in Colorado history," implying that no changes...

The reelection of Barack Obama was tarnished by a lower voter turnout rate than 2008, dropping from 61.6% of those eligible to vote to 58.2%, or a decrease of 3.4 percentage points. Here, I place the 2012 turnout rate in historical perspective and analyze where turnout decreased, and...

You know who won the 2012 presidential election. What you may not know is which candidate did best among the different ways that people vote.

A few states report their election results by how people voted: mail ballots, in-person early voting, Election Day voters, people who cast a provisional ballot,...

Both figurative and literally, registered Democrats are leaving requested mail ballots on the table. Democrats are returning the mail ballots at a lower rate than Republicans, leading to wide disparities among the ballots that have been cast compared to the ballots that are still sitting on kitchen tables across the...

With more than 10 million people already casting a ballot, early voting is on pace likely to exceed the 41 million cast in 2008. Next week will be crunch time as millions of people across the country cast ballots.

Everyone wants to know who is winning. In my commentary below...

Now with over 3 million people voting across the country, the campaigns are spinning the early vote. Here are my takeaways so far:

Iowa is firming up for Obama. The early vote confirms the polls showing an Obama lead, but by a narrower margin than 2008. Romney still has time...

More than 800,000 people have already voted in the 2012 general election. A clearer picture of the potential 2012 electorate is emerging in some states where election officials are providing information on who has voted.

Early voting -- both mail and in-person -- is on pace to exceed 2008...

Early voting is now underway.

All states were required by federal law to deliver military and overseas ballots last Saturday and as of Thursday, Sept. 27, all but twenty-one states have reached their deadlines to start early voting for domestic civilians. Within some of these latter states --...

We are beginning to get the first early voting statistics out of North Carolina, which started mailing absentee ballots on Friday, Sept. 7. Election officials report delivering 21,875 mail ballots as of Saturday, Sept. 8, and two ballots were accepted. Congratulations Daniel and Justin, you are the first two people...

And we're off!

The first mail ballots have been sent to North Carolina voters. As of Friday mid-morning, election officials have mailed 5,085 ballots to 17,724 voters who submitted requests.

North Carolina is the first state to start early voting by mail. Indiana and Kentucky will be next up on...

Early voting in recent American elections has skyrocketed, reaching a record thirty percent of all votes cast in the 2008 presidential election, remarkably higher than the twenty percent cast in 2004. All indications are the record will be shattered again in 2012, with somewhere around thirty-five of the vote cast...

Does Scott Walker's victory in the Wisconsin recall election mean that Wisconsin is now in play in the November presidential election?

Short answer is no, for two reasons.

The first reason is that the exit polls show that if Obama was on the ballot, he would have won...

The Washington Post reports that voter registration is down among Blacks and Hispanics, and could pose a "serious challenge" to the Obama campaign.

Unfortunately, it is the Washington Post's statistics that are seriously challenged.

The source of this information is the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, also called...

Editorial boards across New York have called upon Governor Cuomo to veto the gerrymandered districts likely to be adopted by the state legislature. At stake during redistricting are the political fortunes of the parties and their incumbents, often at the expense of sensible representation for communities.

The prospect of a...

Overall, turnout was down in the Florida Republican primary from 2008. In 2008, 1.95 million votes were cast in the Republican primary, compared to 1.67 million cast in 2012 (reported by the Florida State Board of Elections as of the morning of Feb. 1). A decline of 280,000 votes. What...

We all know that President Obama won his party's primary in New Hampshire. What you may not know is that Obama only won 79.5% of the vote. Second place in the New Hampshire Democratic primary went to Ron Paul, with 3.7%, Mitt Romney was third with 2.9% of...

Perhaps the most important undercurrent in American politics that the Iowa Republican caucuses reveal is that the raging Tea Party enthusiasm fever of 2010 that led to historic Republican election victories has broken.

Participation in the Iowa Republican caucuses was strong. Over the past four years, participation in the...