State-by-state voter turnout

[last_texas_dem]

Hello, DUers! Just wanted to post to see if any of y'all can help me in locating any source that has voter turnout statistics listed state by state. I'm doing a project for my Statistics class to see whether Carter, Reagan, or Anderson was helped most by voter turnout in various states during the 1980 election. I've been able to find plenty of electoral vote maps, popular vote statistics, and national turnout rates, but does anyone know of a source that has or might have state-by-state voter turnout statistics? I've Googled and spent about thirty minutes checking with no luck... and I thought this was a project I'd be able to knock off in half an hour...

Many thanks to anyone who can help me with a link or resource on this!

(BTW, it's actually pretty interesting to find out the effects of high voter turnout in different states. I was actually inspired to look into the 1980 election, because there was a fairly prominent 3rd party candidate, after we looked at how other third party candidates affected voter turnout in different states in more recent elections. Basically, I found out that generally (in recent elections) the Democrats are helped the most by high voter turnout unless there is a prominent 3rd party candidate in which case the third party is helped more. For example, in the 1988 election Dukakis was helped greatly by high turnout in certain states, while in 1992 and 1996 Perot was helped the most- and in 1992 Bush was actually significantly harmed by having high turnout in states. In 2000, the effect was basically negligible, with * being very slightly harmed, and Gore and Nader both very slightly helped but Nader a bit more than Gore.)

[last_texas_dem]

1. Kick

Sorry if I'm annoying and keep this one kicked for a little while... I always forget how fast this forum moves! That's a good thing, though...

[HFishbine]

2. Got

just what you need.

Go here: http://www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/frametextj.html

Select 1980 from drop down menu. Scroll down a bit and to the left of the map, you'll see some buttons. One of them is the % of population of voting age who voted (voter turnout). Mouse over it and the map will dynamically change to show the results. Click on it and you'll get a static map of the same along with a table for state-by-state statistics.

The 1980 election may turn your theory on its head though. Maybe it might be more insightful to look at who is helped when there is a high percentage of independent voters.

[MaineDem]

3. Info for Maine

I'm not sure if this will be of any value to you but Maine's election tabulation for the past years can be found here. http://www.state.me.us/sos/cec/elec/prior1st.htm

I hope it can help you. Good luck; it sounds like an interesting project.

[last_texas_dem]

4. Thank you

Just wanted to thank both of you for the links. :-)