Originally posted by reeftool While the electoral map shows a bigger percentage for Obama, he won many states by only around 1%. The popular vote was very close. When 40% of eligible voters don't bother to vote, I take that as more people than those who voted for either candidate just don't care.
I see your points. However, I could be wrong, but I think that the only states that Obama won by less than about 2% were FL and OH. The only state were Romney won by about 2% was NC. Jumbled math but if Obama lost FL and OH he would have lost 29 electoral votes for FL and 18 for OH. He still would have had enough to win the election.
I also think that more than 40% of eligible voters usually don't vote.
Close races
States/districts where the margin of victory was under 5% (75 electoral votes):
- Florida, 0.88%
- Ohio, 1.92%
- North Carolina, 2.04%
- Virginia, 3.87%
Edit: IMHO, I don't think that apathy is the deciding factor in voter turnout. I think that it is more a factor of people losing hope that their lives will get better. Maybe a fine point, but just my 2 cents.