Super Tuesday states are listed below the black line:
Turnout was improved in Ohio (understandable given the massive effort by Romney and Santorum—same as Michigan), North Dakota and quite significantly in Vermont. Apparently, Vermont Republicans are terrified of getting Santorum as their nominee. Ohio actually had woeful early voting numbers, which means election-day turnout was disproportionately strong, a function of the great deal of attention given to the race in the state. You'd almost be forgiven for thinking nothing else was on the ballot.
But those were the only bright spots, with turnout down everywhere else, including some pretty significant collapses. And let's not forget that 1) the GOP nomination was long over at this point in 2008, with John McCain sewing up the nomination early. This year, there's still a race in progress. And 2) Those numbers include Ron Paul supporters, who aren't likely to support the war mongering GOP in November.
Now, the 13.43 percent decline in GOP voter participation does include Washington, which skewed the results by converting from a primary in 2008, to a much lower-turnout caucus in 2012. But taking Washington out of the equation, that still leaves Republicans with a 8.93 percent deficit compared to 2008.
Of course, we can keep tinkering with the numbers—take out the first three states, when interest was genuinely high, and the post-South Carolina numbers are down 16.64 percent—probably a result of Republicans tuning out Romney's uninspiring and nasty campaign, while ignoring the rest of the cast of clowns.
So for a party that claims to be all fired up to take on the illegitimate Kenyan socialist in the White House, they sure don't seem to thrilled about choosing President Barack Obama's opponent. Not that anyone can blame them, given the D-list cast of clowns they're working with.
