Naturalized immigrants a group that makes up two-thirds of the Asian American electorate are the main driver of the Asian electorates growth. Because the CPS sample is not large enough to accurately measure this population, the Census Bureau does not include statistics for the American Indian and Alaskan Native population in its CPS voting products. ), Michael P. McDonaldProfessorUniversity of FloridaDepartment of Political Science222 Anderson HallP.O. The number of felons who are on probation is estimated to be 62% of the total, which based on a DOJ survey; the total probation population is reported in the spreadsheet, and this adjustment is applied to the number of ineligible felons on probation. Age: The median age of the non-Hispanic white population is 44, according. While it was previously difficult to determine the number of ballots cast and instead had to rely on the most ballots cast in a highest off (i.e. While the Census Bureau has collected voting and registration data since 1964, the CPS has gathered citizenship data consistently only since 1994. McDonald and Popkin (2001) argue that by including non-eligible populations in the denominator of voting rate calculations, the traditional VAP turnout measure is biased toward lower voter . Arizonas 7th District had the lowest rate (29.0%). Throughout United States history, voter turnout among the voting eligible population has varied, ranging from below twelve percent in uncontested elections, to 83 percent in the 1876 election. voting-age population. That is the general rule. Elitism, Pluralism, and Tradeoffs, The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition, Advantages and Disadvantages of Federalism. Hispanic voters made up 13% of the countrys overall electorate in 2018 nearly doubling from 7% in 2000. Usually, VEP is the most preferred denominator, followed by CVAP, and then VAP. An eligible voter is a person who meets the requirements set forth in a political subdivision for being able to vote. The increase has been steady over the past 18 years from 2000 to 2010, their share rose by 4 percentage points (from 24% to 28%), while from 2010 to 2018, their share further grew by 5 points (up from 28% to 33%). The White shares of the electorate in those states each stood at about six-in-ten in 2018, down from about three-quarters at the start of the century. Most registered voters vote. Voter turnout is a measure of civic participation that many people believe best gauges the health of the electoral process. Browse our collection of stories and more. R. Abramson. Box 117325Gainesville, FL 32611 phone: 352-273-2371 (office)e-mail: michael.mcdonald@ufl.edu. For instance, Vietnamese Americans are more likely than Asians overall to identify as Republican, while the opposite is true among Indian Americans, who tend to lean more Democratic. US Elections Project - 2016g Since 1972, every state has required that eligible voters be at least 18 years of age. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Voting and Registration 1986. The most valid turnout rates over time and across states are calculated using voting-eligible population. Partisan alignment does not tell the whole story when it comes to voting patterns. Another interesting tidbit of information is that there is only one location where there is a maximum voting age, which is in the Vaticans Holy See (limiting the Cardinals who vote for the next Pope to those who are below 80 years old). A shift of only five seats would transfer control of the chamber from Democrats to Republicans. then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution: Use the information below to generate a citation. Eligible Voters by State [Updated January 2023] - World Population Review Notify me of followup comments via e-mail, Written by : Celine. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Demographic characteristics of eligible voters in a congressional district can provide information and insight into voter turnout in elections. The African American Struggle for Equality, Civil Rights for Indigenous Groups: Native Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians, Toward Collective Action: Mediating Institutions, Divided Government and Partisan Polarization, Collective Action and Interest Group Formation, Interest Groups as Political Participation, Free Speech and the Regulation of Interest Groups, Delivering Collective Action: Formal Institutions, The Design and Evolution of the Presidency, Presidential Governance: Direct Presidential Action, Guardians of the Constitution and Individual Rights, Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court, Bureaucracy and the Evolution of Public Administration, Understanding Bureaucracies and their Types, Institutional Relations in Foreign Policy, Electoral College Votes by State, 20122020, https://openstax.org/books/american-government-2e/pages/1-introduction, https://openstax.org/books/american-government-2e/pages/7-key-terms, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. According to 2020 Census data, 57.8% of the population identify as "white, not Hispanic or Latino," as opposed to 63.7% in the 2010 Census, and 69.1% in 2000. For only the second time since 1980, the share of non-Hispanic white voters did not drop since the last presidential election. However, over the past decade, the more Democratic-leaning Puerto Ricans have been the states fastest-growing Hispanic-origin group, and they now rival Cubans in size. For more details, see the. Counted among the voting-age population are persons who are ineligible to vote, such as non-citizens, felons (depending on state law), and mentally incapacitated persons. Note that while it is the obligation of American citizens to be registered voters, they are not automatically registered upon reaching the voting age of 18. They alone accounted for 39% of the overall increase of the nations eligible voting population. Voter turnout raterefers to the share of eligible voters who say they voted in a given election. There are even options for mail-in registration, and some states such as Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming offer same-day registration, which means a voter can register at the day of the election itself. See The Sentencing Project for more information. Based on statistics for 2020, the number of eligible voters in the US was over 231 million people. Browse our topics and subtopics to find information and data. (There hasnt been a decline in the District of Columbia.) (Note: based on a survey of overseas voters, the Federal Voting Assistance Program estimates that only 45.3% of overseas citizens are of voting age. What Are Civil Rights and How Do We Identify Them? These racial and ethnic groups are by no means monolithic. Field experiments to test the effects of campaign communications on voter turnout have shown that personalized methods work best in mobilizing voters and mass e-mails are virtually never effective in stimulating turnout. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. The most valid turnout rates over time and across states are calculated using voting-eligible population. "Who Overreports Voting? " In 2018, Asian eligible voters made up 4% of the nations electorate (up from 2% in 2000), the smallest share out of all major racial and ethnic groups. Official vote counts also frequently do not include mismarked, unreadable, and blank ballots. During that same period, Hispanic voters have come to make up increasingly larger shares of the electorate in every state. Some polling firms' survey universes are the voting-age population. The voting eligible population (VEP) is the demographic that represents members of the population that are actually eligible to vote. Lock Due to sample size constraints, data are not produced at smaller geographies. A lock ( PDF Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978-2014 The groups sustained growth over the past two decades will make Hispanics the projected largest minority group among U.S. eligible voters in 2020 for the first time in a presidential election. Elections that occur in odd-numbered years and at times other than November typically have significantly lower turnout rates than the ones shown on the graph. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. This difference is related to a number of factors, including: Though 2020 was consistent with previous elections in that Hispanic/Latino voters had the lowest reported voting and registration rates, it did mark a historic milestone. With voting registration deadlines for the November election drawing near, statistics from previous elections tell us how people register and their likelihood of registering and voting. The voting-eligible population (, ) represents an estimate of persons eligible to vote regardless of voter registration status in an election and is constructed by modifying the voting-age population (. (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main An attempt to get information to voters that will persuade them to elect a candidate or not elect an opponent is the definition of which of the following concepts? Precedent and any hit to the young voter turnout in 2022 could spell trouble for President Joe Biden and Democrats. Using VEP turnout rates, recent presidential elections have returned to their levels during the high participation period in the 1950s and 1960s. voting-age population means the resident population of persons who are 18 years of age or older, as determined by the most recent American Community Survey data available at the time any change to a covered practice is published pursuant to subsection B. This varied by state. Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections - The American Presidency Project Mar 9, 2022 OpenStax. And similar to Hispanics, their nearly two-decade growth has been relatively consistent. The midterm elections and the presidential election of 2024 may confirm that the often-called sleeping giant of U.S. electoral politics is ready to emerge in full force. Green, Donald P., and, Alan S Gerber. This estimate is deflated by 76.0%, which is the percentage of the domestic citizen population that is of voting age according to the 2015 American Community Survey. The populations share in the electorate grew at similar rates from 2000 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2018 (1 point each). Whoever gets the highest number of votes, wins. In 2020, the average turnout in the 8 states where the presidential margin of victory was 5 percentage points or less was 70%, compared to 59% in the nine states where the margin of victory was greater than 30 points. An eligible voter is a person who meets the requirements set forth in a political subdivision for being able to vote. Voting-age population during elections - USAFacts Even with the problems of over-reporting, public opinion surveys are usually the only way we can study the turnout patterns of subpopulations of voters, such as regional or racial groups. Explore census data with visualizations and view tutorials. See here to read the data essays methodology for further details on our data sources. Pending further investigation, I follow past practice of using an estimate from the domestic civilians. Massachusetts 7th District, Californias 40th District and Arizonas 7th District were among the youngest congressional districts in the country, with at least one-third of their citizen voting-age population under the age of 30. R. Abramson. Turnout can be measured in the aggregate by simply counting up the number who vote in an election. That means, on average almost 9 in 10 registered voters cast a ballot. (For example, 78% of respondents to the 2012 American National Election Studies survey reported voting, compared to the actual turnout rate of 58% as reflected in the graph above.) The denominator one chooses to calculate the turnout rate depends on the purposes of the analysis and the availability of data. In contrast, a quarter of eligible voters in New Yorks 15th, Californias 40th and Texas 29th districts lack a high school diploma. Most recently, the midterm election of 2018 set record-breaking turnout for a congressional election, with a historic 11 percentage point increase from the last midterm election in 2014. However, VAP includes individuals who are ineligible to vote, such as non-citizens and those disfranchised because of felony convictions. To be sure, the demographic composition of an area does not tell the whole story. The one reform that is most consistently correlated with higher levels of turnout is Election Day registration (EDR), although even here, there is disagreement over whether EDR causes higher turnout or if states with existing higher turnout levels are more likely to pass EDR laws (its probably a combination of the two). The United States is growing increasingly diverse. Voters who are Hispanic, Black, Asian or another race or ethnicity accounted for more than three-quarters (76%) of this growth. Ballot access for major and minor party candidates, List of absentee/mail-in ballot request websites by state, List of official voter registration websites by state, https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Eligible_voter&oldid=8572815, contact our editorial staff or report an error, Conflicts in school board elections, 2021-2022, Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) policy, Special Congressional elections (2023-2024), 2022 Congressional Competitiveness Report, State Executive Competitiveness Report, 2022, State Legislative Competitiveness Report, 2022, Partisanship in 2022 United States local elections, Whether or not the person is a convicted felon. Political debates often rage over whether particular reforms will raise or lower turnout, either overall or for particular groups. In many--but not all--states, in order for a person's signature to count on a petition for a candidate or a ballot measure, the person must be not just eligible to vote, but also registered to vote. Nationally, 61% of the citizen voting-age population said they voted in 2016, ranging from a high of 73% in Maine to a low of 47% in Hawaii. The substantial percentage point increase of voters who are not White as a share of the countrys overall electorate was largely driven by second-generation Americans the U.S.-born children of immigrants coming of age, as well as immigrants naturalizing and becoming eligible to vote. These trends are also particularly notable in battleground states such as Florida and Arizona that are likely to be crucial in deciding the 2020 election.2In Florida, two-in-ten eligible voters in 2018 were Hispanic, nearly double the share in 2000. Taking the VEP against the VAP can be critical in determining the voter turnout in the municipal, state, and national elections which in turn is a factor in assessing the success of an election. Hispanics made up more than half of voting-age citizens in 24 congressional districts: Arizona (3rd), California (21st, 29th, 32nd, 35th, 38th, 40th, 41st, 44th, 46th and 51st), Florida (25th, 26th and 27th), Illinois (4th), New York (15th) and Texas (15th, 16th, 20th, 23rd, 28th, 29th, 34th, and 35th). US Elections Project - 2020g "Difference Between VEP and VAP." It does not include persons that are not eligible to vote, such as non-citizens, and in certain states in the United States, convicted felons. In certain countries, the difference between the VAP and VEP is lower as there are nations where registration is automatic and mandatory. For a more consistent measure, it is better to use a measure that reflects the population of possible voters. Want to cite, share, or modify this book? Naturally, as the population becomes more diverse, so does the electorate.