Where the hell did all the voters go?
Published December 18, 2015
by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, December 17, 2015.
Back in December 2012, North Carolina had about 6,624,000 registered voters. Back then the state had about 9,750,000 or so. Today, it has over 10 million people but there are only 6,431,000 registered voters.
Where the hell did all the voters go? We gained 250,000 more people in the state and lost almost 200,000 voters. That doesn’t seem right.
Democrats took the biggest hit. They lost 226,246. Republicans lost 86,020. Independents gained 108,257. Granted Independents have been gaining ground but the state should still be registering voters.
So was there a purge of the voter that eliminated 3% of the registered voters? That seems steep. Previous purges didn’t eliminate nearly as many voters. When they did purge, the registration numbers always rebounded quickly. Maybe voter registration drives leading into the presidential year will get the numbers up again but 200,000 voters is a lot to make up. To account for population growth, the numbers should be much higher than 2012.
From 2004 to 2008, registration increased by 1,202,745 voters. From 2008 to 2012, we gained 341,561 voters. By the end of this year, we should probably have at least 6,800,000 or so registered voters. If not, you can assume those voter suppressions laws are working.
December 18, 2015 at 11:24 am
Bennie Lee says:
That's another thing wrong wit this country now.
These 4-letter words everywhere. TV, open print,
We are going to the dogs.
December 19, 2015 at 4:44 pm
Richard L Bunce says:
"If not, you can assume those voter suppressions laws are working."
That was a long way to go for nothing.. did you write that line first?
Of course this data is about voter registration, not actually voting. The only significant change that effects registration was same day registration... and we have seen the data that alleged disenfranchised voters actually turned out in greater strength in 2014 than in 2010, the previous comparable year. You have fallen victim to the nonsensical disparate impact argument that if it negatively effects the Democratic Party it must be a conspiracy to achieve that result. You don't know, you said you don't know, I suspect if someone figures it out it will not be you.
