Imagine... You're Turning 18 Before The 2016 Election... What Party Do You Choose, And Why ???

[hay rick]

42. Their participation in 2012 was really low. Figures for my area...

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2015, 11:52 PM - Edit history (1)

In 2012, participation of registered voters by age group was:
21-30....47.8%.......they were 18-27 at the time. I use current age for all groups, so subtract 3 yrs for all
31-40....57.1%
41-50....67.5%
51-60....74.3%
61-70....77.3%
71-80....83.0%
81+.......80.7%

I think participation among younger age groups could be worse this time- based on the increasing share of non-affiliated and third party registrations. The change is pretty dramatic and does not bode well. First, you should understand that Florida is a closed primary state. Registering as something other than R or D effectively shuts a voter out of half the electoral process- the primaries. These voters have one foot out the door.

Two comparisons from 2012: for the 20-31 group, voters who registered as "other" voted 38.1% of the time vs. 53.5% for their peers who registered as R or D. The difference for all registered voters in 2014: R or D 74.2%, "other" 59.5%.

I said the number of people declaring "one foot out the door" was increasing...here are the last set of numbers to chew on:

"other" as percentage of all registered voters in my area: 27.1%
"other" as percentage of voters registering in last year: 44.6%