Men Tend to Bail on Election Day

Women, Catholics, independents now favoring GOP

(NEWSER) - Key groups of voters who helped President Obama win in 2008 and delivered Congress to the Democrats in 2006 are favoring the GOP this time around, a New York Times /CBS poll finds. Women, Catholics, less affluent voters, and independents are all leaning Republican, the poll finds. Women are set to choose Republicans over Democrats in House races for the first time since polls started tracking voting demographics in 1982. More»

Zeituni Onyango granted asylum

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's aunt, has received permission to stay in the US. An immigration judge granted Zeituni Onyango's plea for asylum today, agreeing with her lawyer's arguments that she would face tribal violence if she returned home to Kenya. Oyanga was not well known to her nephew, but she became a focus of attention during the 2008 campaign after she defied a deportation order and filed for asylum, the Boston Globe reports. More»

Number of people moving at lowest since WWII

(NEWSER) - The recession, with its attendant falloff in home prices and job opportunities, has pared back the traditional American activity of relocation to its lowest level since World War II. A new study shows that 12% of Americans moved in the last two years, compared to 14% earlier this decade, 17% in the '90s, and 20% in the '50s and '60s. Usually footloose young people have shown the steepest dropoff. More»

For men, elections are dominance competitions

(NEWSER) - Male McCain voters were feeling a little less macho when the results of the 2008 election rolled in. Duke researchers tested testosterone levels in 183 voters across election night. Testosterone normally drops over the late evening—but male Obama voters’ levels remained stable, while McCain voters saw a bigger drop than usual. No such effect took place for women, notes Political Wire. More»

(NEWSER) - Increased turnout by minorities in last year's election helped Barack Obama take several swing states and advance in GOP strongholds, new data from the Census Bureau shows. Turnout was 64%, the same as the last presidential election—but a growing population means that 5 million more people voted in 2008 than 2004. Minorities account for almost the entire increase; 2 million more blacks, the same number of Hispanics, and 600,000 more Asians cast a ballot. More»