Voter Turnout Outpaces Last Two Elections

Though votes are still being counted out west – and there are provisional and absentee ballots outstanding – CBS News is estimating that the final turnout in the 2008 election will be 133 million or more Americans, many of whom endured hours-long waits Tuesday to cast their ballots.

133 million votes would mean that 57 percent of the voting age population cast a ballot, CBS News estimates, up from 55 percent in 2004 and 50 percent in 2000.

The percentage turnout in this election is unlikely to be the highest in American history – as the Associated Press notes, the turnout rate in 1960's presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon was 63.8 percent.