[EL] New Pew Data Dispatch on Voter Registration in Colorado

[Michael McDonald]

The Colorado SoS appears to have cherry picked various data sources to show
their 2012 turnout in the most favorable light possible. They use
preliminary reports (they cite the NY Times, but I guess these numbers are
from the AP?) to report that their turnout rate went up 1.8 percentage
points. They then later site my numbers, but only to rank Colorado vs. the
other states. Why use my stats only to rank Colorado? Well, my presidential
VEP turnout rate has a decline of 0.7 percentage points from 2008 to 2012 in
Colorado. They also cite a 7 percentage point national decline from 2008,
but provide no data source (I peg the national decline at 3.4 percentage
points). I think I know where that number came from...and it was a wrong
number that underestimated turnout due to what I think we will find to be an
usually large number of provisional ballots, along with Sandy-delayed
reporting issues. With the opening two pages riddled with selective
statistics, I have little confidence in the remainder of this report,
especially internal numbers that cannot be independently verified.

New Pew Data Dispatch on Voter Registration in Colorado 
Posted on February 19, 2013 11:00 am by Rick Hasen 
Here.

Posted in election administration, voter registration | Comments Off