Official: turnout above 800K, maybe 1M

January 21, 2013 @ 3:08 pm


Crowds fill the National Mall to watch the ceremonial swearing-in of President Barack Obama at the U.S. Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) | Zoom

WASHINGTON (AP) - An inauguration planning official says turnout was "definitely above 800,000" and possibly up to one million people.

Chris Geldart, who directs the District of Columbia's homeland security and emergency management agency, says early and unofficial estimates of the number of people on the National Mall indicate a turnout higher than 800,000. That's based on aerial views of how the crowd filled sections of the mall.

Officials initially anticipated as many as 800,000 visitors, but lowered the projections to 500,000 to 700,000, based partly on an updated number of charter buses and restaurant and hotel reservations.

But Geldart, who's also co-chairman of the district's presidential inaugural committee, said the event benefited from relatively mild weather.

About 1.8 million people attended President Barack Obama's first swearing-in in 2009.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (7)


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  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    big crowd of morons!
    January 3, 2013 6:01 am
    16 trillion!!!! You all voted him in again? FOOLS!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • wsualumn wrote...
    Gee Sick
    January 3, 2013 7:00 am
    I sure wish I had been as smart as you and voted for Mitt Romney. That brilliant budget plan that Paul Ryan proposed would have put us further into debt and Mittens had John Bolton as secretary of state. Now there's a guy that would have more than happily pushed us into more and more wars. I just couldn't imagine wonderful it would have been to have George Bush policies all over again.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    WSU
    January 20, 2013 1:47 pm
    Click. Listen. Learn. www.youtube.com/watch?v...autoplay=1
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    SickofSeattleite so are you going? . . . .
    January 3, 2013 6:44 am
    we got room for one flounder on the bus. But you must call now. Operators Standing By. 16 trillion? flounders?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    What? Less people?
    January 20, 2013 12:49 pm
    Seems the shine has worn off the lying hopocrite.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    all you have to worry about zero-zero -
    January 20, 2013 5:11 pm
    have all your guns at the curb!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Fuego wrote...
    They all thought
    January 21, 2013 3:07 pm
    they were going to get free phones.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }