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Voter Turnout Shaping Up To Be Lower Than 2008

WASHINGTON -- A drop in voter turnout in Tuesday's election didn't keep President Barack Obama from winning a second term.

Preliminary figures suggest fewer people voted this year than four years ago, when voters shattered turnout records as they elected Obama to his first term.

In most states, the numbers are shaping up to be even lower than in 2004, said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Every state but Iowa is showing a smaller turnout than in 2008, Gans said. Still, the full picture may not be known for weeks because much of the counting takes place after Election Day.

"This was a major plunge in turnout nationally," Gans said.

In Maryland, where voters approved a ballot measure allowing gay marriage, turnout in the presidential race was running more than 7 percentage points behind 2008. Pennsylvania and South Carolina were seeing slightly smaller declines.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press' figures showed nearly 119 million people had voted in the White House race, but that number will increase as more votes are counted. In 2008, 131 million people cast ballots for president, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Experts calculate turnout in different ways based on who they consider eligible voters. A separate, preliminary estimate from George Mason University's Michael McDonald put the 2012 turnout rate at 60 percent of eligible voters. That figure was expected to be revised as more precincts reported and absentee votes were counted.

Large drops, according to the American University analysis, came in Eastern Seaboard states still reeling from the devastation from Superstorm Sandy, which wiped out power for millions and disrupted usual voting routines. Fifteen percent fewer ballots had been counted in New York than in 2008. In New Jersey, it was more than 10 percent. The gap in New Jersey could narrow in the coming days because elections officials have given displaced residents in some areas until Friday to cast special email ballots.

Best efforts be darned, making it to the polls in the wake of Sandy may have simply been too much for some affected voters. In Hoboken, N.J., Anthony Morrone said he's never missed a vote – until now.

"No time, no time to vote, too much to do," said Morrone, 76, as he surveyed the exterior of his home: a pile of junked refrigerators, a car destroyed by flooding and a curbside mountain of waterlogged debris.

In other areas not affected by the storm, a host of factors could have contributed to waning voter enthusiasm, Gans said. The 2012 race was one of the nastiest in recent memory, leaving many voters feeling turned off. With Democrats weary from a difficult four years and Republicans splintered by a divisive primary, neither party was particularly enthused about their own candidate. Stricter voting restrictions adopted by many states may also have kept some voters away from the polls.

"Beyond the people with passion, we have a disengaged electorate," Gans said. "This was a very tight race, there were serious things to be decided."

Decided they were – by the millions of voters who, in many cases, braved all kinds of inconveniences to make sure their voices were heard.

Some voters in South Carolina's Richland County waited more than four hours to vote, and leaders from both parties blamed the delays on broken voting machines. Officials in Virginia and New Hampshire reported many voters were still waiting to vote when polls closed in the evening. In major battleground states like Ohio and Florida, lines snaked back and forth as voters waited patiently to cast their ballots.

"I've been waiting for four years to cast this vote," said Robert Dan Perry, 64, as he did so for Romney in Zebulon, N.C.

Both Obama and Republican Mitt Romney made voter turnout a top priority in the waning days of an intensely close race. But for months leading up to Election Day, both candidates were obsessed with that tiny sliver of undecided voters.

It may be that those who were still undecided Tuesday decided just not to show up, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"Everyone was talking about how the Democrats are unenthusiastic and the Republicans are fired up," Kondik said. "It sounds like that was all talk."

One bright spot this year was the number of early and mail-in ballots cast. Before polls opened on Election Day, more than 32 million people had voted, either by mail or in person, in 34 states and the District of Columbia. In a number of states, including Iowa, Maryland and Montana, early voting appeared to far exceed totals from 2008.

914 Page Views.. Going for 1000!

Good morning everyone of the page.. Just wanted to let you guys know that I have 914 official page views so far, and I want to get to a thousand. Been busy lately, but I will start posting more now that I have time.

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....Update 11/15/2012....  

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Gothic Music - The Eternal Forest

Millions of unexploded bombs lie in waters off US coast, researchers say

Lurking (and leaking) beneath the world's oceans are an estimated 200 million pounds of unexploded and potentially dangerous explosives -- from bombs to missiles to mustard gas.

Texas A&M oceanographers William Bryant and Niall Slowey documented two such dumpsites in the Gulf of Mexico recently. They conservatively guess that at least 31 million pounds of bombs can be found not just in the Gulf, but also off the coasts of at least 16 states, from New Jersey to Hawaii.

Thousands of gallon containers of mustard gas lie strewn off the New Jersey coast, for example. And there are a total of seven dumpsites on the Gulf seafloor, each approximately 81 square miles, one at the mouth of the Mississippi River Delta.

“The amount that has been dumped was unbelievable,” Bryant said. “No one seems to have reported seeing explosives in the Gulf. We felt it was our responsibility to report it.”

The existence of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is hardly a secret, they acknowledge: Sea disposal of munitions was an accepted international practice until quite recently. Dumping conventional and chemical munitions captured from enemies -- from Nazi Germany, for example -- was also an accepted practice.

In 1970 the Department of Defense prohibited the practice, and Congress followed up by passing the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act in 1972, generally banning sea disposal.

 But after half a century or more on the sea floor, the condition of the munitions is a dangerous unknown.

“Is there an environmental risk? We don’t know, and that in itself is reason to worry,” Bryant said. “We just don’t know much at all about these bombs, and it’s been 40 to 60 years that they’ve been down there.”

Suspicions have long circulated that undocumented munitions have been “short-dumped” -- as in dumped long before reaching their designated site, leaving them far closer to the coast than believed by authorities.

While conducting marine geology research on the sea floor of the Gulf, Bryant’s team came across the two dumpsites and vividly captured decaying canisters they believe most likely contain chemical weapons.

They presented their research at the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions in Puerto Rico recently.

They also found themselves floating in a field of munitions as large as 500 pounds.

According to a statement published by Texas A&M University, an explosion from UXO could threaten ship traffic, commercial fishing, cruise lines and other activities, as well as the approximately 30,000 people working on the oil and gas rigs and marine life in the Gulf.

The team said Texas is closest to the bombs they have seen, which lie as near as 50 miles offshore. Louisiana was the second closest, particularly the Mississippi River Delta.

So what exactly is down there -- and is it still as lethal as the day it was created?

The Defense Department began a massive research effort in 2004, thousands of hours of labor spent reviewing several million pages of documentation, to get a grip on the location, type and quantity of weapons in the water.

While this project initially focused on chemical warfare material, it shifted to locating conventional munitions and considering where ranges and coastal artillery batteries could have deposition munitions.

Oceanographers and other experts believe no one knows for certain just what’s offshore, hence Prof. Bryant’s efforts to raise awareness about the Gulf of Mexico sites.

Sea-disposed munitions that aren’t fused or armed are called discarded military munitions (DMM). UXO have undergone the arming sequence but failed to function as intended, so are often designated the most dangerous of DMM.

There are two potential risks associated with these and any underwater munitions: immediate detonation or exposure to toxic chemical agents and long-term prolonged exposure.

Recovery from the world’s waters, either by destroying them in place or lifting them from the water, can be more dangerous than leaving them as is, however.  Bryant’s work reveals that many underwater munitions have deteriorated over time and exposure.

Yet proximity to shore means they’re hardly hidden.

Reports of Louisiana shrimpers pulling up hissing barrels in their nets have led to suspicions that the shrimpers are exposing themselves to mustard gas. The incidents haven’t been confirmed as chemical weapons, but Bryant said he “can’t imagine what else would have been dumped in those canisters and begun to hiss.”

American shrimpers finding mustard gas drums in their fishing nets -- what will they find next?