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2012 Election Snapshots
Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.
2012 Election Snapshot – District of Columbia
As noted previously, the District of Columbia had a significant increase in the use of provisional ballots in 2012, due in part to the introduction of Election Day registration. In the District, all ballots cast by voters who register on Election Day are treated as provisional ballots.
The 2012 election was also the first presidential election in which District residents could vote without an excuse at early voting centers. More than 1 in 5 voters cast ballots either in person or by mail before Election Day, compared with 1 in 10 voters in 2008. Even with so many early voters, the city had the nation’s second-longest average wait at the polls, at 34 minutes, behind Florida.