Who Voted in 2008 and Voters' Experiences and Problems at the Polls

Who voted in the 2008 Election and voter's experiences and problems are covered in three reports:

• The Census CPS Voting and Registration Supplement - Michael McDonald of the George Mason Univ. US Elections Project has analysis of the Census survey data on who voted and who was registered.  Headline findings are that African-American turnout jumped 4.9% while White turnout decreased 1.1%, putting African-American turnout only .9% below that of Whites; and while there were 9.5 million new registrations, the registration rate declined marginally.
• The Census CPS - Project Vote Analysis - Doug Hess at Project Vote analyzes the Census survey and finds that young people of color made the strongest gains in voter participation in 2008, leading to a more representative electorate.
• 2008 Survey of the Performance of American Elections - The major academic survey of election conduct and voting experience has been released for the 2008 election.  Key findings are that 4 million voters didn't vote because of adminstrative problems beyond their control; while almost 80 million eligible voters did not participate in the election.