It's taken about a year, but thanks to new Census numbers and to Project Vote, we now have the most accurate picture of who voted, who didn't vote, and how the voting patterns compare to previous elections. The highlights: 64% of the 204 million voting-age Americans voted, up about 6 million in number and 4 percentage points from 2004. Historically underrepresented groups made gains in this election. Non-whites made up more than 90% of the increase in the total number of voters. The authors conclude that had non-whites voted at the same percentage as whites, more than 5 million more votes would have been cast in 2008. The study, by Douglas Hess and Jody Herman, finds that had voters under 30 voted at the same rates as their counterparts over 30, more than 7 million additional ballots would have been cast.
No wonder Republicans worry about a Democratic demographic storm. Young voter turnout has increased at a rate of about 30% per general election since 2000. Indeed, the rate of increase was higher from 2000 to 2004 than from 2004 to 2008. Women turned out at a higher rate than men. Black
men under 30 saw their participation rates increase by eight percentage
points, Latino women and women under thirty grew by 6% and Asian women
saw their participation rates grow by 13 points. Young black women
voted at the highest rate among voters under 30 -- and the only turnout rate that exceed the voting rates by white people of any age. White women under 30 voted at a rate of 52% -- higher than all but black women under 30.
Women outvoted men by 10 million; the rates of unmarried women and unmarried women are growing faster than their married counterparts, other variables held constant. Twenty million more people voted in 2008 than in 2000; unmarried women composed about 35% of the increase; unmarried men composed about 29%. Despite all this, unmarried folks remain underrepresented.
No wonder Democrats worry about an off-year election. Not only does
turnout itself drop -- usually about 15 percentage points through all
demographic cleavages -- but it drops even higher for new voters and
for younger voters.
No wonder Democrats and affiliated interest groups spent so much time
trying to register the young, the poor, the non-white -- and why this
registration effort has become a political football. ACORN's voter
registration arms tend to ferret out non-voters in communities that
redound to the benefit of the Democratic Party.
For the first time in recorded memory, voting rates for those under 30 increased; voting rates for those over 30 did not.
Among the
unregistered or non-voting, non-whites made up a disproportionate
percentage of this group. Latinos are still the most significantly
under-registered group, making up 13% of the total number of
unregistered adults and just 7% of the total number of voters. There
remains a lingering mistrust of voter registration efforts in parts of
the Latino community, and there's a large number in this sub-group who
are undocumented, making outreach efforts difficult and fraught with
political controversy too.
Among income, about 30% of those
making less than $25,000 a year were not registered to vote, compared
to just 13% of those making more than $100,000 a year.
> No wonder Democrats and affiliated interest groups spent so much
> time trying to register the young, the poor, the non-white --
> and why this registration effort has become a political football.
The reason why this voter registration effort has become a political football is that Republicans, generally speaking, have no conscience. They care only for extending their political power at the expense of the nation, democracy, and the world. It is just that simple.
"Latinos" are disproportionately in the
Disproportionately, they are employed, albeit for short-duration and low-wages w/ no benefits, hard-working, renters, or sub-prime mortgagees, often married w/ children, often serving in the military.
In Texas and Harris County -- which are about as bad as it gets -- the voter registration/re-registration and ballot qualification process is especially daunting for anyone with those economic and demographic characteristics, regardless of race.
In Houston, we use the term "Hispanic". But, these sorts of terms are just census categories. Culturally, such verbiage is meaningless as there are very many and varied sub-categories. In any case, the Hispanic or Latino identities are only politically germane for those as participate in the political system.
The local political establishment -- both parties -- eschew racial discrimination in voting but fail to address the effective generational and economic constraints on suffrage.
Both parties prefer avoiding competition with bizarre gerrymandering and patronage schemes. Our Jim Crow legacy -- bi-partisan concession-tending in municipal government -- gives the young and the poor, regardless of race, little reason to vote, save for a flash of anger or enthusiasm.
Obama did well here, but the political establishment -- both parties -- consisting of land speculators, slum-lords, bond-lawyers, and paper-hangers have moved quickly to suppress political participation and revert to business-as-usual.
Both parties compete to maximize the overlapping municipal debt and to levy regressive and indirect taxes. These taxes require an an extensive police-state to collect in cash or in kind (prison labor).
Some Democratic-leaning groups do voter registration. But, the Democratic party establishment and most Democratic office-holders -- remember they seek to avoid competition, not win -- eschew voter registration.