op-ed
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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November 03, 2004

The numbers are in behind President George Bush's victory.

TURNOUT:
Besides showing a strongly divided country, voter turnout was 65% (113 million) of the 173.6 million registered voters.

GAY VOTE:
4,524,641 gays and lesbians voted (4%). 1,040,667 (23%) cast a vote for George Bush. 

YOUTH VOTE:
Despite claims by some 527s on their wild success mobilizing the youth vote, the facts are they did not. Only 17% of 18-29 year olds bothered to vote, which was the exact percentage in 2000. I reported on a foreshadowing indicator of this failure here.

ISSUES:
The most important issue for voters were "moral issues" (22%) followed by "terrorism" (19%), and an overwhelming number of voters who identified these issues voted for George Bush (79% and 86% respectively). Issue of Jobs, Economy (18%) and Iraq (15%) came second and overwhelmingly favored John Kerry.

George Bush's appeal to anti-gay sentiments in his base drove conservatives to vote on the issue of "gay marriage" before issues in which our country needs leadership.