Summer CE Week #2: “Voter turnout rate down in ’08, census data show” July 21st
July 21, 2009 in Nation/World
WASHINGTON – For all the attention generated by Barack Obama’s candidacy, the share of eligible voters who actually cast ballots in November declined for the first time in a dozen years. The reason: Older whites with little interest in backing either Barack Obama or John McCain stayed home.
Census figures released Monday show about 63.6 percent of all U.S. citizens ages 18 and older, or 131.1 million people, voted last November.
Although that represented an increase of 5 million voters – nearly all of them minorities – the turnout relative to the population of eligible voters was a decrease from 63.8 percent in 2004.
Ohio and Pennsylvania were among those showing declines in white voters, helping Obama carry those battleground states.
“While the significance of minority votes for Obama is clearly key, it cannot be overlooked that reduced white support for a Republican candidate allowed minorities to tip the balance in many slow-growing ‘purple’ states,” said William H. Frey, a demographer for the Brookings Institution, referring to battleground states that don’t notably tilt Democrat or Republican.
“The question I would ask is if a continuing stagnating economy could change that,” he said.
According to census data, 66 percent of whites voted last November, down 1 percentage point from 2004. Blacks increased their turnout by 5 percentage points to 65 percent, nearly matching whites. Hispanics improved turnout by 3 percentage points, and Asians by 3.5 percentage points, each reaching a turnout of nearly 50 percent. In all, minorities made up nearly 1 in 4 voters in 2008, the most diverse electorate ever.
By age, voters 18-to-24 were the only group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, with 49 percent casting ballots, compared with 47 percent in 2004.
Blacks had the highest turnout rate among this age group – 55 percent, or an 8 percentage point jump from 2004. In contrast, turnout for whites 18-24 was basically flat at 49 percent. Asians and Hispanics in that age group increased to 41 percent and 39 percent, respectively.
Among whites 45 and older, turnout fell 1.5 percentage point to just under 72 percent.
Asked to identify their reasons for not voting, 46 percent of all whites said they didn’t like the candidates, weren’t interested or had better things to do, up from 41 percent in 2004. Hispanics had similar numbers for both years.
Not surprisingly, blacks showed a sharp increase in interest.
Among the blacks who failed to vote last fall, most cited problems such as illness, being out of town or transportation issues. Just 16 percent of nonvoting blacks cited disinterest, down from 37 percent in 2004.
Among other findings:
•The decline in percentage turnout was the first in a presidential election since 1996. At that time, voter participation fell to 58.4 percent – the lowest in decades – as Democrat Bill Clinton won an easy re-election over Republican Bob Dole amid a strong economy.
•The voting rate in 2008 was highest in the Midwest (66 percent). The other regions were about 63 percent each.
•Minnesota and the District of Columbia had the highest turnout, each with 75 percent. Utah and Hawaii – Obama’s birth state – were among the lowest, each with 52 percent.
The census figures are based on the Current Population Survey, which asked respondents after Election Day about their turnout. The figures for “white” refer to the whites who are not of Hispanic ethnicity.
I cannot vote, and thus have never been very interested in that certain aspect of the presidential elections. However, after reading this document, I feel as if I should look deeper into the subject. As an objective reader, it seemed to me that the author seemed to be slightly biased against the democratic party. She also, in my opinion, only approached the issue of lessened voting from a single perspecive. I understand that there may have been a selection of people who did not approach the voting boothes due to Obama’s racial background, but I consider it a slight to my own color to assume that a majority of white Americans were opposed to Obama’s presidency. I would like to see what other reasons there were for the lower voting percentage, because everything in life is subject to multiple-causation.
This was an interesting article to read about. Before I read this article, I didn’t know about the percentage on voting since 2004 with different races. I heard that in this election some blacks were only voting for Obama because he’s black and some whites weren’t voting for Obama because he’s black. The article showed mostly an increase of voters, which is good. Some people are voting for the wrong reason. If you’re going to vote, then you should know about the candidates and where they stand. Don’t just say “That guy looks cool. I think I’ll vote for him.” There were some people that stayed home because they didn’t like either candidate. I wonder if the people who only voted for Obama because he’s black still support him. Or are they even following him?
It’s interesting that only slightly over half of the American population that could vote voted. A lack of interest in our country’s future is a little unnerving. Since the general population is responsible for electing our leaders, it’s surprising that so many don’t bother to vote at all. Another issue that the article brought up was that a lot of the time people don’t vote if the candidate doesn’t belong to their ethnic group. I wonder that if the candidates for office become more racially diverse in the future, voter percentages will increase and decrease, especially by ethnic group.
In response to Kylei,
I think that the majority of people that voted for Obama for the sole reason that he is black probably aren’t supporting him anymore because they were probably not that into politics to begin with. Now I am not saying that every one that support Obama because of his ethnicity is not still supporting him but doesn’t the fact that they chose a man to run our country based on the color of his skin show that they are not exactly the brightest bulbs in the tanning bed. During the election there were ads everywhere about voting, telling us to, “support are country,” and “let our voices be heard.” After all the advertisement there were probably a lot of people that felt the need to vote even though they knew nothing about the candidates or their platform, and when faced with who to vote for they went with someone who was like them. And after they had done their patriotic duty went back to not paying attention to politics.