A DROP in US voter turnout failed to 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 as the country's first black president.
"This is one of those rare elections in which turnout in every state in the nation went down," said Curtis Gans, the director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.
Still, the full picture may not be known for weeks, because much of the counting takes place after election day.
With 97 per cent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press' figures showed more than 118 million people had voted in the White House race, but that number will go up as more votes are counted. In 2008, 131 million people voted, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The biggest plunge by far, according to the American University analysis, came in East Coast states still reeling from last week's superstorm Sandy, which wiped out power for millions and disrupted usual voting routines. Fifteen per cent fewer voters cast ballots in New York this year than in 2008. In New Jersey, it was almost 12 per cent. 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.
Several 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 in many states may also have kept some voters away from the polls.
Both Obama and Republican Mitt Romney made voter turnout a top priority in the waning days of an intensely close race. For months leading up to election day, both candidates were obsessed with a tiny sliver of undecided voters.
It may be that those who were still undecided on Tuesday decided not to show up, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
One bright spot in this year's voting 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, early voting appeared to far exceed totals from 2008.
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