I don't know....a lot of people voted but the percentage is going to probably look similar to 2004

The California vote, where the increased African-American turnout put Prop 8 over the top (69 percent of them voted Yes, much higher than the 52 percent from all voters), indicates the basic ambiguity of increased turnout, as Victor pointed out.

I was going to vote, but I had to hide out.  A process server was spotted in this part of Carroll County.  I hope I didn't break the average.

Turnout was high, but when you look at the final vote totals, you will find that it actually only increased by 2-3 million people over the 2004 totals. Many believed that we would see upwards to 10 million new voters; those numbers failed to materialize.

According to exit polls, 70% of new voters were turning out for Obama. That in the final analysis is what gave him his margin of victory. It also turns out that McCain got about 57 million votes, that's down from George Bush's vote total from 2004, which was 59 million. What happened to that 2 million? Some of it can be attributed to a lack of conservative excitement for the Republican ticket, but I think most of it can be explained by the defection of suburban voters from the Republicans to the Democrats. High income (>$200,000) voters actually went for Obama 53%-46%. This demographic went for Bush in 2004 61%-38%. That was a surprising finding, especially considering the McCain campaign's really tried to define Obama as a socialist. Either way, this election was won (or lost) in suburban America.

The statistics I've seen on either CNN or MSNBC suggest that the Democrat voting turnout set records, but the Republican turnout was lower than usual, suggesting many of the GOP stayed home because they didn't care for McCain, and Palin didn't make enough difference to motivate them to get out and vote.

Time will tell on this one, since many of the the absentee and provisional ballots have yet to be counted, but speculation is that even based upon percentage of eligible voters, this election may break records since 1964 or possibly 1960. New voter conversion would be an interesting metric to look at.

The numbers that I have seen say that it was the same as four years ago. Lots of new voters and many of the old ones stayed home.

Haven't seen turnout like this in a long old time. Good to see people starting to care. Hope it continues instead of fizzling out next go round.

I have never seen an election run quite like this one. Ranging from the push to early vote to the massive amount of people that registered to vote. Something you may never see again. I have a funny feeling that the vast majority of new people that registered for the first time did so just to make history happen.

A good thing,  as long as no voter fraud is involved.

Voting is always a good thing. Everyone should exercise this right and privilege.  Hopefully though in the future voting strict party lines and because of race ties will be a thing (mindset) of the past.

Consider the fact most people who were voting for Obama or McCain couldn't name a single thing either candidate stood for, I am not sure having a bunch of uneducated people not knowing what they are voting for is a good thing.

Initially, higher voter turnout sounds like a great thing.  However, with this election being so "historical" with either party winning, (first black president vs. first female VP) - one can't help but wonder how many votes were cast simply to see history take place, one way or another.  Just something to ponder.

I can understand why  so many see low voter turnout as a bad thing- the perception that freedom is being taken for granted. However, when people are uninformed and uninvolved leading up to election day, it suits me fine for them to stay home. In this case, I am reminded of the old adage that an election is one thing only: a referendum on the incumbent.

While my experience has given me little faith in the political intelligence of the "average" voter, I'd sooner see more people vote than less.

That being said 64.1 percent is still dismally low compared to the normal turnout in other western democracies.