Turnout as a percentage of the total Mid-2012 population

[memphis]

That much lower!? Color me surprised.

2004 and 2008 were both viewed by the public as "crisis" election. First we had post 9/11 and the War in Iraq. Then we had the economic meltdown. I'm all for voter turnout, but I'd rather not have another clusterInks that we'd need to replicate turnout from those elections.
Also, per USAToday

Alabama 57.6%
Alaska 58.1%
Arizona 51.4%
Arkansas 49.5%
California 55.3%
Colorado* 70.7%
Connecticut 61.2%
Delaware 61.1%
District of Columbia 63.3%
Florida* 62.6%
Georgia 56.8%
Hawaii 44.1%
Idaho 57.6%
Illinois 59.0%
Indiana 55.0%
Iowa* 69.9%
Kansas 56.9%
Kentucky 54.7%
Louisiana 59.7%
Maine 67.7%
Maryland 66.1%
Massachusetts 67.4%
Michigan 64.7%
Minnesota 75.0%
Mississippi 58.4%
Missouri 60.9%
Montana 62.1%
Nebraska 59.7%
Nevada* 54.3%
New Hampshire* 69.6%
New Jersey 61.2%
New Mexico 53.6%
New York 50.1%
North Carolina* 64.1%
North Dakota 61.8%
Ohio* 64.5%
Oklahoma 48.6%
Oregon 63.2%
Pennsylvania* 59.3%
Rhode Island 58.1%
South Carolina 55.9%
South Dakota 59.4%
Tennessee 51.4%
Texas 49.0%
Utah 55.3%
Vermont 60.3%
Virginia* 66.0%
Washington 64.3%
West Virginia 45.7%
Wisconsin* 71.7%
Wyoming 57.3%
* denotes swing states.
Swing state turnout 64.2%
Non-swing state turnout 56.8%
Cite: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/12/23/voter-turnout-swing-states/1787693/

[memphis]

That much lower!? Color me surprised.

2004 and 2008 were both viewed by the public as "crisis" election. First we had post 9/11 and the War in Iraq. Then we had the economic meltdown. I'm all for voter turnout, but I'd rather not have another clusterInks that we'd need to replicate turnout from those elections.

I don't think the high turnout in 2004 and 2008 was caused by a "crisis" situation. 1980 didn't have a very high turnout, after all. What happened these two years is that a side (the GOP in 2004, Dems in 2008) did a great job at turning out their base. And, considering the situation, the still pretty good 2012 turnout is because Obama's GOTV machine still does a good job. If there is anything we can learn for the last few things, is that campaigns, when they put a little efforts in it, can and do manage to increase turnout. What happened in the 80s and 90s is that nobody bothered about turning out voters.

Hopefully politicians (dems in particular, since their base is naturally less prone to voting) will learn the lesson and keep on with GOTV efforts.

In 1980, the perception was that the government was the crisis, which is a different dynamic. The population was also lot younger then, and you know how much youngs love to vote.