Voter Turnout for Midterm Elections with Demographic Breakdowns, 1982 to 2006 (self-reported)
Self-reported measures of election turnout allow us to examine the characteristics of voters. Because some people who did not vote report that they did or because people who choose to respond to a survey are generally more participatory, self-reported turnout rates tend to be higher than ballot-derived data. Self-reported turnout rates show that people who are older, white, educated, and strongly rooted in their communities are more likely to vote.
This statistic measures the percent of voting-age citizens of various demographic characteristics who cast a ballot in a midterm election from 1982 to 2006 based on self-reported survey data. These data are self-reported, so they are likely to overestimate socially desirable behaviors such as voting. Additionally, these estimates are based on data from the Current Population Survey, which has the potential for large sampling error. Where the sampling error was too high, data were not presented. These data are available through the Current Population Survey's Voter and Registration supplement, viewable at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html. Dr. Michael McDonald, Associate Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University, provided consulting support on developing and analyzing these data.
