Voter Habits Based on Demographics

Abstract

In this paper I intend to evaluate the voting habits of the American public. I will look at how race, sex, education level, marital status, income level, current employment status, and age effects whether or not people vote. I am also going to examine which political parties these groups have historically voted for, why they vote for them, how this has changed over the years if it has changed at all, and why it has changed.

I believe that from previous voting information you could fairly well predict the voters' choices. I'm not saying you could foretell the outcome of upcoming elections, but you could figure out what to expect given the state of current affairs.

I find this interesting because I didn't know there were so many statistics out there on this. Many that I have looked at already are pretty surprising. It would give me a better foundation of understanding of how our country and society works. Understanding the world around me better will assist me for the rest of my life.

Academically I think this is very important and relates to the future elections. For a true democracy people need to get out and vote. With this information we can see what groups aren't being represented through a lack of voting and we can take action about this. They can be educated on the importance of voting and what a difference they can make.

For my research I will need to find out a lot of statistics. Also I will need to know where they came from. Then I will need to find some information on how to evaluate all this information and what conclusions can be made about it. I will most likely find this information in studies and information included with the statistics.

Body

There are many differences that separate the American population. I am going to examine some of these differences in relation to voting and make some assumptions as to why these differences occur. These conjectures will be based on statistical numbers obtained from the 2002 congressional elections and previous years. I have chosen to exclude the presidential elections because I feel that they would be too complicated to analyze in a paper of this length. Also I believe the congressional elections provide more consistent and traceable trends in our society.

First I will have to take into account the number of people that are unable to vote. Out of the 210,421,000 people that were over the age of 18 in 2002 only 192,656,000 were citizens who would be qualified to vote. This difference is made up of people who do not have United States citizenship. This is important for the consideration of racial and ethnic differences in voting rates. Immigration has affected the non-citizen population of many groups. Only two percent of Non-Hispanic whites are not citizens and six percent of

Blacks are not citizens. This is in stark contrast to the thirty-eight percent of Hispanics and thirty-eight percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders who do not have citizenship. This can be seen in the nineteen percent of voting age Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders who voted compared to the thirty percent of the voting age citizen population who voted. This is illustrated well in the following graph.

The overall percentage of 18 and over citizens who voted in the 2002 congressional election was at the second lowest with the 1998 election being the lowest. There has been an increase in the overall number of people eligible to vote, but a decrease in the percentage that register to vote and the percentage of registered voters that do. I believe this comes from an increase in the sensationalism of the presidential elections that over shadows the congressional elections. The hype and prominence isn't present so it tends to slide by unnoticed. You can see this in the average difference of thirteen percent more voters in presidential elections since 1964. The people who do vote in these elections are the ones, I feel, are more involved and concerned about the state of the union.

Native citizens are more likely to register and vote than naturalized citizens. Ninety percent of citizens of voting age in 2002 were native. Out of these people about thirty percent were Non-Hispanic Whites, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics each. The remaining nine percent was made up of Blacks. Non-Hispanic Whites have the greatest difference between native and naturalized citizens at seventy percent to sixty percent respectively. In contrast Hispanics have the opposite with sixty-four percent of naturalized citizens voting compared to fifty-six percent of native citizens. With the exception of the Hispanic population I believe that more native citizens vote because they have a better understanding of our governmental process and know more about the history of it from our public schools. They have a greater sense of loyalty and commitment.

In a recent trend more women voted than men in the 2002 elections. In 1984 women first surpassed men in voter turnout. Historically men have had higher voter rates than men but there are a few social changes that have influenced this. Education attainment strongly correlates to voter turnout and this has increased substantially among women. Also participation in the workforce is linked to political participation which has also increased with the prevalence of single parent homes and families with both parents working.

The differences in education can be seen in the rates of citizens with bachelor's degrees at sixty-one percent which is over twice that of citizens who have not completed high school at twenty-eight percent. With each successive level of educational attainment

voting rate increase. Out of the total voter turnout in 2002 thirty-four percent had bachelor's degrees or more while those that didn't graduate from high school only made up eight percent. I believe this comes from basic ignorance. If you don't know how the government works it makes it hard to participate. Also it is hard to make a decision if you don't really know what you are making a decision about. I would assume these people either don't care about the outcome, or don't have enough information to participate.

An interesting difference in voters is that citizens with higher incomes are more likely to vote. Fifty-seven percent of citizens in households that had annual incomes of $50,000 or more voted. On the other side out of citizens living in families with incomes of less than $10,000 only twenty-five percent voted. This makes me think of the saying that Americans vote with their wallets. Well if you don't have much money you don't really have much of a wallet to vote with. People that have more money at stake have more incentive