Many of Hillary Clinton’s voters vowed they would never support him, but Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday far outpaced Republican John McCain among female voters and former Clinton backers, according to exit polling.
Among Democrats overall who supported Clinton, 84 percent told pollsters on Election Day they voted for Obama, while 15 percent said they voted for McCain, according to data compiled by CNN.
“I think it’s the old adage that the closer you get to Election Day, the more partisans come home,” said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida. “I also believe Hillary Clinton went all out for him, and did above and beyond what was needed to get him over the edge.”
MacManus noted that in Florida, female voters were breaking for McCain — a variation she attributed to that state’s older electorate.
Still, Obama was garnering well over half of the women’s vote nationwide, and maintained a narrow edge among men, according to Associated Press exit polls.
McCain’s history-making choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate did not appear to be helping him much at the polls. Sixty percent of voters said Palin is not qualified to president, while 38 percent said she is, according to AP.
On the Democratic side, two-thirds of voters said Obama running mate Joseph Biden Jr. is qualified to be president, to 31 percent who said he isn’t.
Overall, strong participation among young voters and African-Americans was on track to prove another history-making element in this year’s election.
Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, cautiously predicted total turnout could reach 1960 levels, when nearly 64 percent of Americans voted.
Some 45 million voters participated in early voting, and preliminary tabulations nationwide estimated 95 million more showed up on Tuesday.
Some experts predicted black voter turnout would increase by as much as 20 percent over previous elections. Young voters, whose early enthusiasm in past campaigns has not borne out in final tallies, remained a wild card.
In 2004, turnout overall was 60 percent, according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist at George Mason University. Turnout in 2000 was 54 percent.
