While not a very prestigious source, here’s a citation from wikipedia, which will help explain the subsequent data from Gallup. I include it as certain sources will otherwise automatically reject the assertion if I made it::
“In the case of voting for president, since the 1970s, party identification on voting behavior has been increasing significantly. By the late 1990s, party identification on voting behavior was at the highest level of any election since the 1950s.“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_identificationHe is a comparison of Gallup Partisan Affiliation data from Jun 7-10. 2001 and November 7-9, 2008:
Party 2008 2012 Change
Democrat 33 30 - 3
Republican 28 30 2
Other 2 1 - 1
Independent 37 39 2
Total 100 100 None
http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
