Presidential Primary Turnout Rates

In the table below, two estimates of the voting population are provided. One is the VAP or "Voting-Age Population" and is an estimate of the number of persons age 18 and older residing in a state. The VEP or "Voting-Eligible Population" is an estimate of the number of persons residing in a state who are eligible to vote. These two numbers are not equivalent since non-citizens and ineligible felons (depending on state law) are included in the VAP but are excluded from the VEP estimates. Although I highly recommend using VEP, I provide both numbers as a service to people who still rely on VAP.

These estimates of turnout may be different from many state Election Board statistics which report turnout as a percent of registered voters. Registration numbers are not comparable across states or across time within the same state because state registration laws and frequency of purging of inactive voters from registration rolls vary. However, the limitation to using these estimates as measures of primary participation is that they do not provide partisan breakdowns.

All estimates are of the first of the month for a given election date. Where possible, I provide a link to the source of turnout data for a given election. Other useful links:

2004 Presidential Primaries						2000 Presidential Primaries
Date	State/Territory	VAP Estimate	VEP Estimate	Turnout	VEP Turnout Rate	Date	VAP Estimate	VEP Estimate	Turnout	VEP Turnout Rate
Jan 13	District of Columbia (D non-binding)	454,614	408,248	39,540	9.7%	May 2	462,032	403,725	24,975	6.2%
Jan 19	Iowa caucus	2,264,940	2,189,799	122,193 (D) 11,160^a (R) 133,353 (Total)	6.1%	Jan 24 caucus	2,208,518	2,121,836	61,000 (D) 86,000 (R) 145,000 (Total)	6.8%
Jan 27	New Hampshire	989,250	960,792	287,620	29.9%	Feb 1	920,451	892,867	396,385	44.4%
Feb 3	Arizona	4,153,844	3,664,105	238,942 (D) -- (R)	6.5%	Mar 11 party-run primary	3,709,739	3,231,252	86,907 (D) 322,669 (R) 409,576 (Total)	12.7%
	Delaware	636,972	595,885	33,291 (D) -- (R)	5.6%	Feb 5 (D) Feb 8 (R) party-run primary	591,752	538,762	11,141 (D) 30,060 (R) 41,201 (Total)	7.6%
	Missouri	4,346,574	4,198,107	543,392	12.9%	Mar 7	4,183,776	4,005,822	745,754	18.6%
	New Mexico caucus	1,393,910	1,294,323			Jun 6	1,318,520	1,217,144	208,723	17.1%
	North Dakota caucus	490,419	452,011			Feb 29 (R) Mar 7 (D)	487,986	480,678
	Oklahoma	2,665,645	2,548,108	368,583	14.5%	Mar 14	2,567,612	2,427,127	259,659	10.7%
	South Carolina (D)	3,214,442	3,098,601	289,856 (D)	9.4%	Mar 9 (D) Feb 19 (R)	3,028,722	2,885,088	9,657 (D) 573,101 (R) 582,758 (Total)	20.2%
	Virginia caucus (R)	5,639,057	5,273,290			Feb 29 primary (R)	5,324,258	4,949,732
Feb 7	Michigan caucus (D)	7,554,838	7,257,657			Mar 11 caucus (D)	7,362,907	7,051,005
	Washington caucus (D)	4,670,390	4,251,962			Feb 29	4,364,227	3,885,740
Feb 8	Maine caucus	1,042,375	1,026,771			Mar 7	983,305	968,585
Feb 10	District of Columbia (D)	454,383	408,040			May 2	462,032	403,725	24,975	6.2%
	Tennessee	4,457,803	4,310,397	467,777	10.9%	Mar 14	4,298,064	4,126,171	465,994	11.3%
	Virginia (D)	5,639,057	5,247,374	395,903 (D)	7.5%	Jun 3 state party convention	5,350,370	4,974,421	n/a	n/a
Feb 14	Nevada caucus	1,687,424	1,473,417			May 19 (D) caucus May 25 (R) caucus	1,463,656	1,264,630
Feb 17	Wisconsin	4,182,467	4,021,793	826,250 (D) 160,072 (R) 3,443 (Lib) 989,765	24.6%	Apr 4	4,002,666	3,812,009	866,965	22.7%
Feb 24	Idaho caucus (D)	1,003,549	959,672			May 23	924,437	881,445
	Hawaii caucus (D)	978,076	893,145			Mar 7	917,424	835,267
	Michigan (R)	7,554,838	7,257,657			Feb 22	7,358,524	7,046,765	47,962 (D)^b 1,276,770 (R) 1,392,023 (Total)	19.8%
	Utah (D)	1,667,804	1,562,502			Mar 10	1,522,389	1,431,350
Mar 2	California	26,398,890	21,268,830	6,585,111	31.0%	Mar 7	24,537,681	19,558,032	7,883,385	40.3%
	Connecticut	2,607,988	2,591,718	131,328 (D)	5.7%	Mar 7	2,547,255	2,299,225	180,304 (D) 179,175 (R) 359,479 (Total)	15.6%
	Georgia	6,483,106	5,859,306	788,112	13.5%	Mar 7	5,988,738	5,248,856	284,431 (D) 643,188 (R) 927,619 (Total)	17.7%
	Maryland	4,179,067	3,841,415	638,928	16.6%	Mar 7	3,930,495	3,553,384	894,433	25.2%
	Massachusetts	5,025,049	4,619,450	620,595 (D) 73,793 (R) 1,176 (Lib) 1,070 (G) 696,634	15.1%	Mar 7	4,882,892	4,498,804	620,595 (D) 73,793 (R) 1,176 (L) 1,070 (G) 696,634 (Total)	15.5%
	Minnesota caucus (D)	3,846,538	3,636,712			Mar 7	3,642,249	3,383,578
	New York	14,701,451	12,701,168			Mar 7	14,358,227	12,361,670	974,463 (D) 2,161,518 (R) 634 (G) 3,136,615 (Total)	25.4%
	Ohio	8,588,930	8,395,297	1,221,014 (D) 777,972 (R) 2,365,969 (Total)	28.2%	Mar 7	8,480,202	8,265,339	978,512 (D) 1,365,962 (R) 2,526,590 (Total)	30.6%
	Rhode Island	853,614	778,644			Mar 7	804,006	721,063
	Vermont	485,875	476,114			Mar 7	464,472	455,141
Mar 9	Florida	13,245,235	11,659,448			Mar 14	12,187,799	10,530,130	551,995 (D) 699,503 (R) 1,341,844 (Total)	12.7%
	Louisiana	3,343,164	3,253,503			Mar 14	3,268,358	3,127,215	157,551 (D) 102,912 (R) 260,463 (Total)	8.3%
	Mississippi	2,137,865	2,083,478			Mar 14	2,082,649	2,014,580
	Texas	16,234,719	13,933,626	839,231 (D) 687,615 (R) 1,526,846 (Total)	11.0%	Mar 14	14,856,169	12,400,868	1,126,757 (D) 786,890 (R) 1,913,647 (Total)	15.4%
Mar 13	Kansas	2,051,868	1,965,865			Apr 22 (D) caucus May 25 (R) caucus	1,987,473	1,900,308
Mar 16	Illinois	9,468,692	8,608,093			Mar 21	9,187,875	8,326,305	809,667 (D) 736,921 (R) 1,546,588	18.6%
Mar 20	Wyoming caucus	387,552	377,258			Mar 10 (R) caucus Mar 25 (D) caucus	367,264	354,781
Apr 13	Colorado caucus	3,462,220	3,215,954			Mar 10	3,167,849	2,929,003
Apr 27	Pennsylvania	9,557,449	9,297,938			Apr 4	9,381,561	9,110,984
May 4	Indiana	4,610,114	4,487,772			May 2	4,500,554	4,372,029
	North Carolina	6,385,776	6,013,063			May 2	6,063,496	5,640,806
May 11	Nebraska	1,312,744	1,255,101			May 9	1,268,001	1,198,258
	West Virginia	1,422,690	1,409,109			May 9	1,408,341	1,387,430
May 18	Arkansas	2,066,432	1,983,467			May 23	1,995,433	1,895,073	246,900 (D) 44,573 (R) 291,473 (Total)	15.4%
	Kentucky	3,251,289	3,169,229			May 23	3,088,912	2,995,700
	Oregon	2,750,833	2,566,737			May 16	2,568,737	2,392,169
May 25	Idaho (D non-binding)	1,008,737	964,665			May 23	924,437	881,445
Jun 1	Alabama	3,424,354	3,321,905			Jun 6	3,339,922	3,206,336	278,527 (D) 203,077 (R) 489,573 (Total)	15.3%
	New Mexico (R)	1,402,196	1,302,099			Jun 6	1,318,520	1,217,144
	South Dakota	575,008	563,624			Jun 6	555,918	545,406
Jun 6	Hawaii (R party convention)	982,379	897,098	n/a	n/a	May 19	919,267	836,960
Jun 8	Montana	708,476	698,838			Jun 6	679,341	668,597
	New Jersey	6,578,534	5,757,945			Jun 6	6,331,188	5,454,196	240,810 (D) 378,272 (R) 240,810 (Total)	4.4%

Notes: (a) Source: Personal communication with Kristin Scuderi, Communications Director, The Iowa Republican Party (1-23-04). The Iowa Republican Party does not tabulate participation in uncontested caucuses, though caucuses were held in every precinct. Attendance was reported for four counties: Black Hawk 540; Dubuque 347; Linn 1,350; and Polk 1,300; for a total of 3,537. Republican caucus attendance averaged 9.1% of Democratic attendance in these counties. Applying this percentage statewide, an estimated 11,160 Republicans attended caucuses. This is likely an over-estimate since the reporting counties held events where well-known Republican officials spoke.
(b) Michigan Democrats selected delegates at a March 11, 2000 caucus where 18,791 people voted.