Higher turnout of voters in Iowa

By: Erin Floro

Iowans set a record high Tuesday to vote in the Presidential Election 2008.  An increase of 16 percent of Iowans voted from the last record in 2004.  Over 534,000 Iowans returned absentee ballots this year.

Iowa shows to be more Democratic than Republican in this election favoring Senator Barack Obama. There was an increase of 27 percent in absentee ballots returned by Democrats than in 2004.  For the Republican party there was only a 9 percent increase.

The media really attracted people to vote this election.  Over 2 million voters were registered in Iowa compared to 1.5 million in 2004.  There were substantially more newspapers across the country that endorsed Obama over John McCain and I wonder if that played a part in people's decisions.

The Democratic party campaigned well in Iowa and got many first-time voters.  American citizens were well informed about this historic election.