The November 2008 election saw dramatic increases in participation by traditionally underrepresented groups, including Americans of color and young voters, according to a new research memorandum released by Project Vote yesterday.
In the memorandum, Douglas R. Hess, researcher and author of 2007 Project Vote report, Representational Bias in the 2006 Election, analyzes newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the definitive source of demographic data on registration and voting in America. The analysis examines participation in the 2008 general election by race/ethnicity, age, and income status, resulting in the first comprehensive picture of who voted in 2008 compared to 2004.
“The exciting story from 2008 is not that overall turnout increased, but that the electorate we heard from at the polls more closely resembled the true demographics and diversity of the American people,” said Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote in a press release yesterday.
Historically, participation among African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters has lagged disproportionately behind other groups, but the Project Vote analysis suggests that this situation improved in 2008.
* African-American turnout surged from 60.3 percent in 2004 to 65.2 percent (an increase representing over 2 million voters) in 2008;
* Latino-American turnout increased by 2.5 percentage points from 47.3 to 49.7 percent (also an increase of over 2 million voters).
* Asian-American turnout increased about 3 percentage points from 44.5 to 47.8 percent (more than 600,000 additional voters).
* Turnout among young Americans between ages 18 and 30 increased by about 2 percentage points (an increase of 2.3 million voters).
* More than 5.4 million more votes were cast in 2008 than in 2004, and 4.9 million–or 91 percent of the additional votes–were from people of color.
The largest turnout rate gains were among young minority Americans. While White turnout in the under-30 age group was essentially unchanged between the two elections, turnout by African-Americans under 30 increased nearly 9 percentage points, which represents nearly 700,000 additional African-American voters under 30. Asian-American youth turnout also increased by an estimated 9.6 percentage points, and Latino youth turnout increased by 5.2 percentage points.
While these increases in participation are encouraging, Hess points out that there is still room for improvement. There still appears to be significant disparities in participation based on income, for example. While comparisons to 2004 based on income were not readily available for technical reasons, in 2008 there was a 20 point gap in the registration rate between Americans from households earning $25,000 or less per year and those earning over $100,000.
“Moreover,” the memo says, “although there were gains among young voters, only half of voters under the age of 30 voted in 2008, leaving over 21 million citizens in that group alone sitting on the sidelines on Election Day.”