With 100% of precincts reporting, the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website reports that 186,377 Republicans cast a ballot in Saturday’s primary for their candidate and against President Barack Obama. That’s a record for voter turnout in a Louisiana GOP primary.Just before Louisiana, Aaron Blake wrote at The Washington Post:
Please see the graph below for historical context:
Year Type GOP Turnout
1980 Primary 41,683
1984 Primary 16,687
1988 Primary 144,773
1992 Primary -
1996 Primary 77,789
2000 Primary 102,912
2004 Primary 72,010
2008 Primary 161,169
Reports of the GOP’s turnout problems appear to have been slightly premature.
A Fix review of turnout in the Republican presidential nominating process shows that it has rebounded in recent weeks, and GOP voters are now turning out in consistently higher numbers than they did in 2008.
In addition, in the most competitive Republican contests held this year, turnout is up almost universally, with just a couple exceptions.
Turnout is up in all four states that have held major contests since Super Tuesday — Kansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Illinois — and is up overall in eight of 12 contests held this month for which there was a comparable contest held four years ago.
The only states where turnout has been down so far this month have been Massachusetts and Georgia, the home states of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, and in Oklahoma and Tennessee. In Tennessee, it was down 1 percent, while in Oklahoma it was down 15 percent.FOR A TABLE OF PRIMARY TURNOUT DATA, SEE THE UNITED STATES ELECTIONS PROJECT.