A bit more than 10 percent of eligible voters turned out Tuesday to participate in New Jersey's primary election to choose candidates to succeed Sen. Frank Lautenberg.
About 480,000 citizens voted in either the Republican or the Democrat ballots, with 130,000 on the Republican side (two candidates), and 350,000 on the Democratic side (four candidates). New Jersey has a total population of 8.86 million, with 4.6 million registered voters.
Local school board elections do little better; the state estimated that only 15 percent of those eligible show up to vote on school budgets and candidates.
In national elections since 1996, according to a Census Bureau report issued in May, "the number of citizens eligible to vote has increased in every presidential election, as has the number of citizens who have reported voting."
Last year, however, the number of White, non-Hispanic voters dropped by 2 million, while the number of Blacks, Asians and Hispanics rose by 3.67 million, according to Census data.
These are only some of the relevant numbers. It is true that voting and registration rates "are historically higher in presidential election years than in congressional election years," the Census report noted, as well as in state primary elections and in local school elections.
All of which returns to the question raised in the previous posting: Which is better, to encourage turnout by supporters, or to limit voting by potential opponents?
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