Introduction
The 2004 presidential election was a closely, and at times bitterly, fought contest.
Set against the backdrops of an extraordinary controversial presidential election four
years earlier, so-called culture wars at home (manifest by eleven statewide referenda on
gay marriage; see Donovan et al. 2005), a divisive real war abroad, and acrimony about
the military records (or lack of them) of the presidential candidates, the two major parties
and their allied interest groups waged extensive and intense drives to register as many
new voters as possible (Economist 2004), spending more money than ever before on a
presidential election (www.opensecrets.org). As a result, a record number of voters cast
ballots on Election Day (123,675,639), translating into the highest turnout rate since the
adoption of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. (See Figure 1.) Compared to the 2000
presidential election, turnout was up four points (as a percent of the voting age
population) or five points (as a percent of the voting eligible population).
Figure 1 about here
The relatively high turnout rate in 2004 highlights two important questions for
students of electoral participation. First, did increases in registration lead to increases in
turnout? Second, did the higher levels of turnout advantage one of the two major party
candidates? Using the state and county level data from the 2000 and 2004 elections, we
argue that the increase in turnout in 2004 did largely reflect increases in registration, and
that Kerry likely benefited from the increase in turnout. However, both findings appear
to be weaker in battleground states.
Registration and Turnout
Although the efforts to register potential voters prior to the 2004 presidential
Convention