Participation trends in the last two general election cycles are positive. More of us are registering, and more importantly, more of us are voting, though still at different rates depending on who we are demographically and economically.
The Census Bureau released, just this week, data detailing a national level comparison in voting in the 2014 and 2018 elections. It’s impactful enough that more of us are voting. But the comparisons are made much more interesting by the Bureau including demographic splits on variables like age, race, and education.
Check out the graphic below, then click through to a great summary document on the national findings.
In some initial analysis, comparing Georgia state-level voting trends in the 2018 General Election to the nation yields some good news and some bad news. Across Georgia in November of 2018, 56% of all registered voters voted, compared to 53 percent nationally. In racial/ethnic categories, White and Asian Non- Hispanic voting rates in our state exceed those of the nation, but the Black and Hispanic populations in Georgia appear to vote at lower rates than do those populations nationally.
In the coming months, we will be looking more regionally and in more detail at 2014 to 2018 election results. We will do some analysis on voting rates by age, race, education–with the goals of comparing those local data to similar trends at the national level–as presented in this Web Wednesday feature.