Voter But Not Engagement High in High, 2008 But Not Engagement as High as in High, 2008 Given a lot of thought to election
Less than five months before Election Day, voters are not as engaged with the presidential campaign as they were at this point four years ago, when interest in the campaign reached record levels. But voter engagement today generally equals or surpasses levels from the four campaigns prior to 2008, indicating that 2012 could be another relatively high turnout election.
Two-thirds of registered voters say they are giving quite a lot of thought to the election, which is down slightly from 2008 but higher than in any campaign from 1992 through 2004. Interest in election news, also lower than four years ago, surpasses interest in all other campaigns since 1992.
The percentage of registered voters who say they are more interested in politics than they were four years ago, which hit an all-time high in June 2008, is down sharply since then. Even so, the 48% who say they are now more interested in politics is identical to the number saying this in 2004 – and higher than the numbers expressing comparatively greater interest in politics than in 2000 and 1996.
Voter But Not Engagement High in High, 2008  | But Not Engagement as High as in High, 2008  | Given a lot of thought to election  | More interested than four years ago  | Following election news very closely  | 72  | 58  | 50  | 63  | 46  | 54  | 48  | 48  | 46  | 42  | 40  | 37  | 32  | 27  | 25  | 24  | June  | June  | June  | June  | June  | June  | 1992  | 2000  | 2004  | 2008  | 2012  | 1996  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER June 7-17, 2012 Based on  | registere voters Fig ures for 1992 and 1996 on this  | question were from July surveys 