Earlier this week the Current Population Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau released revised data on voting trends from 1964 to 2010. The data examines voting and registration behavior by region, race and ethnicity, gender, age, educational attainment and other demographic features for both congressional and presidential elections. One graph that was included was “Percent Voting by Race and Age: Presidential Elections,” which shows the percentage of whites and blacks of voting age and whites and blacks 18-24 years old that voted from 1968 to 2008. For every presidential election in this time period, a substantially larger percentage of all voters participated than the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds. In 1968 and 1972, a much larger percentage (roughly 52% for each election) of white 18 to 24-year-olds voted than black 18 to 24-year olds (approximately 38% and 35% respectively). This racial gap in voting narrowed substantially by 1984, however, when both groups were slightly above 40% with the percentage of white 18 to 24-year olds voting only slightly higher than black 18 to 24-year-olds. Since 2000, young black people have shown a better voter turn- out than white young people – especially in the 2008 election in which roughly 52% of black young people voted compared to only about 44% of white young people.
No comments :
Post a Comment