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Subject: Most Jurisdictions Hit Turnout Record; More Than 80% Went to Polls in Many
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <27.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

Most Jurisdictions Hit Turnout Record; More Than 80% Went to
Polls in Many Areas<By Carlos Sanchez and Maria E.
Odum=Washington Post Staff Writers= Almost all of the area's ma-
jor jurisdictions set records for voter turnout in Tuesday's
presidential election, officials said yesterday - no surprise to
the thousands of voters who waited in line for a half hour or
more to cast their ballots.

Voter turnout, which surpassed 80 percent in most areas, set
records in Montgomery, Prince William, Fairfax, Loudoun  and Ar-
lington counties, as well as in Alexandria. The record was tied
in Anne Arundel County.

In the District of Columbia 223,517 people voted, more than ever
before. But the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots
was just over 65 percent, far below the 77 percent turnout in
1984.

"It seems everybody who could come out and vote actually did,"
said Charlotte Cleary, the registrar in Arlington County, where
85 percent of the county's 97,902 registered voters went to the
polls.

"This breaks a long-term trend," said Allan Lichtman, professor
of history at American University, who has studied voter trends
over the last century. "Turnout has been declining or steady for
30 years. It's certainly unusual."

But not unexpected, according to officials in election offices
throughout the region.

"We expected it because all the signs were there," said Leona
Agouridis, voter sevice manager for the District of Columbia.

 Heavy voter registration, large "This breaks a long-term
trend."<

- Allan Lichtman>American University professor>

numbers of absentee voting before the election and the simple
fact that "the phones wouldn't stop," all portended a heavy tur-
nout, Agouridis said.

In Maryland, the statewide vote tally approaches, but apparently
will not beat, a record set there in 1952, when 82 percent of all
registered voters went to the polls.  Marvin Meyn, deputy ad-
ministrator of the Department of Elections predicted that, after
absentee ballots are tallied, the state should see an 81 percent
turnout.

"We were predicting 80 percent, based on the increase in voter
registration," he said.

Virginia election director Michael Brown refused to take calls
from the media, an official in that office said before hanging up
on a reporter.

While all election officials said they were prepared for an
onslaught, the sheer volume of people going to the polls Tuesday
caused several delays and other problems.

"There were a lot of people who were disgruntled because they
moved and didn't change their address and were in the wrong pre-
cinct," said Monica Horan, the registrar in Fairfax County, which
saw an 85 percent turnout among its 459,122 registered voters.

"People don't understand that we saw 250,000 people in 13 hours
and each person uses an average of seven to 10 minutes of service
time," said Robert J. Antonetti, election administrator for
Prince George's County. "I don't think any enterprise in the
country could handle that volume."

Although Prince George's 78 percent turnout did not set a record,
Antonetti said the total number of voters was more than twice the
number who voted in the 1972 presidential election, which had a
record 84 percent turnout.

"I've been here 23 years and have never seen anything like it,"
he said.<02:21 11-05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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