While Democrats are hoping for a blue ripple at this point, given early voter turnout and the fact that liberal pollster Nate Silver just went from highly confident to “anything could happen,” Bloomberg is out with some statistics on how America votes by race, age and turnout. For example, those who voted in the 2014 midterm election were 76% (non-Hispanic) white vs. 62% of the general population, and around 17 years older than the median US population.
Bloomberg starts with a grid of the US population by race:
Separated by age group, we see that the youngest Americans are also the most diverse – which makes sense as the country is projected to become majority non-white by 2045.
When you separate those who can’t vote because they’re under 18, voting diversity by race drops:
When we analyze US residents by citizenship status and age, “the pool of those eligible to vote is even whiter and older than the US population at large” when excluding those under 18 and non-citizens.
Of eligible voters in the 2016 election voter turnout was 76% white (vs. 61% national average), while the median age was 51, 13-years older than the national median age of 38.
Bloomberg concludes: “Midterm election voters tend to be the oldest and whitest of all. Turnout in the 2014 midterm elections was the lowest since World War II, and white people made up 76 percent of those who voted.”
Democrats hope this year is different: Younger and more racially diverse Americans—who are more likely to vote Democratic—have been particularly active in some of the country’s biggest political protests in decades. Though early voting totals are up generally, there’s been a surge in young people who have already voted, suggesting that they might be more enthusiastic about voting in 2018 than they were four years ago. In North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia, early voting among younger voters has doubled since 2014. In Texas, it has increased nearly fivefold.
Of course, Republican voters could be just as motivated to cast their ballots. Trump has campaigned aggressively in many battleground races, particularly in states he won in 2016. And he has historically high approval ratings among people who identify as Republicans. –Bloomberg
The analysis then goes into voter ID laws in 34 states – “which disproportionately make it harder for low-income people and minorities to vote because they’re more likely to lack necessary identification.”
We suppose Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Iceland, Norway, the UK and others should abandon their voter ID laws to be less racist?
via RSS https://ift.tt/2QiAN2N Tyler Durden