Election 2012

Shocking Voter Turnout, Or A Lack Thereof

A quick note about the Maine Republican caucus.

Maine is home to just over 250,000 registered Republicans, and approximately 5,500 turned out yesterday to vote for Romney, Paul, Santorum or Gingrich. That's roughly 2 percent voter turnout.

Mitt Romney narrowly defeated Ron Paul by 194 total votes, and his total share of the vote was down by roughly 700 from 2008. Romney won the Maine caucus with 39 percent of the vote, down from 51 percent in 2008.

The Romney campaign is spinning this as a signal that his campaign is getting back on the right track, but I'm not sure if a razor-thin victory over Ron Paul and the fact that he lost 12 percent of the vote compared to 2008 is much to go on.