This is really important.
The fact that poorer people don’t vote as much AND non-voters are more likely to have more leftist political beliefs is… fairly motherfucking important.
This is really important.
The fact that poorer people don’t vote as much AND non-voters are more likely to have more leftist political beliefs is… fairly motherfucking important.
One thing that really bothers me in election stats analysis is like “ooh X percentage of *insert demographic* voted for Y” type stats when they fail to include the fact that only a certain percentage of that population voted.
Only about 55 % of voting age citizens voted this past election.
So like when you say 55% of 18-29 year olds voted for Clinton, you actually mean 55% of 18-29 year olds WHO VOTED voted for Clinton and in fact only about 50% of eligible 18-29 year olds voted (which in terms of turnout is even lower than average so like… yeah) which means that like… roughly 27.5% of voting eligible 18-29-year-olds voted for Clinton and that’s not even including all the people denied votes by fucked up laws (like those barring felons from voting). Considering that roughly 8.6% of the US adult population has a Felony conviction and that there are 2 states where felons never lose the right to vote (Maine and Vermont) and then 14 states where they automatically regain the right after being released from Prison, 25 states where it’s only regained on completion of sentence (including probation), and 9 states where it’s only regained on permission from the Governor… and that roughly .15% of 18-29-year-olds are currently incarcerated… well okay so like the number of 18-29-year-olds who actually voted isn’t the majority of 18-29-year-olds… y’ know what I mean?
The assumption that the non-voting portion of the demographic would have voted the same way that the portion that voted did is… well frankly weird and assumes a lot.
Update: California now doesn’t disenfranchise all felons automatically so that’s a thing