Looking through the early results of the Florida primaries, one thing jumped out at me. And it had nothing to do with any candidate.
According to the CNN exit polls, around than 40 percent of the voters in each primary were 60 or older. About 75 percent of the voters were 45 or older.
According to information on the state of Florida's website, and looking at the population of voting age (18+), those 60 and older made up 28.7 percent of the population, and those 45 and older made up 54.6 of the population.
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I haven't bothered to look at other states yet, although finding the data above took me about 10 minutes and a couple of Excel formulas, so it wouldn't be too hard to do. And I know every so often we hear about how young people don't vote, especially in primaries, and how older people are the most likely voters. I just didn't realize how out of proportion the numbers of older voters were compared to the numbers in the general population.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
demographics
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1 comment:
One other thing I didn't consider - since Florida is a closed primary, I wonder if the older population is more likely to register with a party identification, instead of independent? That would also skew the numbers...
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