An Interesting Stat

I got a letter in the mail from the Green Party of Texas. Most of it was blah, blah, blah, but they mentioned one stat I found odd. They said that only 37% of adults who were of voting age and eligible to vote actually voted in this election. Now, that is ALL eligible voters, not just those registered to vote.

That surprised the hell out of me. So, I did a bit more digging on a few websites. Turns out that the demographics are even stranger.

Less than 7% of the total votes were from those under 25. By the same token, those over 65 represented about 12% despite the fact that there are more than twice as many people between the ages of 18 and 25 as there are over 65 (Generation Y is a biggie I guess!).

Addtionally, African Americans represent about 15% of the adult population yet only about 7% of the votes in this past election came from African Americans. Same thing with Hispanic voters (their numbers were actually lower).

What bothers me the most about this is that those who seem to have the least voice in politics (minorities and young people) came out in the smallest numbers. In fact, in one demographic I saw, it appeared that if 50% of the country's eligible voters chose to vote in any given national election, the remaining 50% that didn't vote would be made up, predominantly (like 70%) of young people and minorities.

One note: women turned out in larger numbers than ever in this election and they would fall among the groups least represented in politics in America so, at least they represented themselves accordingly.

Imagine how different the political landscape of the country would be if everyone actually exercised his/her right to vote.

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Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.