WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 1984 (UPI) - Voter turnout in the 1984 presidential election went up for the first time since 1960, but the increase may have been stunted by television projections of President Reagan's landslide victory.
The findings of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, released Friday, added some fuel to the renewed controversy over TV projections of election winners before all the polls are closed.
The study estimated the total vote for president at 92 million, or 52.9 percent of all Americans eligible to vote. That was up 5.5 million votes, or 0.3 percent over 1980, the first increase in turnout since the 1960 presidential election.
But Curtis Gans, the committee's director, said ''Considering the amount of division in the country, the enormous number of voter registration drives and the optimistic forecasts for increased turnout, this result is very disappointing.''
Gans said three factors entered into the result: ''The perception, going into Election Day, that it was likely to be a landslide;'' the declaration by the networks that President Reagan had won while polls were open in 25 states and the fact that many newly registered voters, such as young people, blacks, Hispanics and blue-collar workers, historically are likely to be discouraged from voting by the expected landslide.
The study found that voter turnout declined in 19 of the 25 states whose polls closed after the television networks declared President Reagan the winner just after 8 p.m. EST. It said turnout increased in 14 of 24 states and the District of Columbia where the polls had closed before the network projections.
The committee's findings about turnout after TV had declared a winner conflicted with the results of a survey of 1,256 voters and non-voters in Oregon by William Adams of George Washington University.
''We could find no evidence that the early announcement depressed turnout anywhere near the extent that has been popularly believed,'' Adams said in announcing his survey results.
He said fewer than 3 percent of the 639 registered non-voters contacted attributed their decision to the television verdicts. In addition, he said, there were more people favorable to Reagan than to Walter Mondale among the group that said TV influenced them not to vote.
The study also found an overall percentage decrease in registered voters who actually cast ballots. It said 72.4 percent of the registered voters went to the polls, down from 75.2 percent in 1980. That percentage had been as high as 80 percent. Gans said ''It is getting less and less certain that registration is the key to higher turnout.''
Voter turnout has been declining since 1960, when 62.8 percent of citizens old enough to vote cast ballots. The slight upward movement this year still left turnout behind 1976, when it was 53.5 percent.
In breaking down the figures, the study found turnout decreased in 29 states and went up in 20 states, plus the District of Columbia. Increases were recorded in the South, the West Coast and the Farm Belt, while only four states west of the Mississippi River had larger turnouts.
The largest turnout increases were in the District of Columbia, 5.8 percent; North Carolina, 4.1 percent; Virginia, 3.2 percent; New York, 2.6 percent; Arizona, 1.8 percent; Ohio, 1.5 percent; and Texas and Pennsylvania, 1.4 percent each.
The biggest decreases were in Alaska, 9.1 percent; Idaho, 8.3 percent; Montana, 5 percent; Washington, 4.9 percent; Rhode Island, 4.6 percent; Colorado, 4.5 percent; Utah and New Hampshire, 4.3 percent each; and Wisconsin, 4 percent.
In terms of actual turnout, Minnesota was highest with 67.9 percent, followed by Maine, 64.7 percent; South Dakota, 63.5 percent; and Wisconsin, 63.4 percent. North Dakota, Iowa, Utah, Connecticut and Montana all were at 60 percent or above.
The lowest turnouts were in South Carolina, 37.2 percent; Nevada, 40.1 percent; the District of Columbia, 41.3 percent; Georgia, 42.1 percent and Hawaii, 44.2 percent.
