WASHINGTON, DC – The November 2008 election saw dramatic increases in participation by traditionally underrepresented groups, including Americans of color and young voters, according to a new research memo released today by Project Vote. The memorandum is available from Project Vote’s website at www.projectvote.org.

The memorandum is by researcher This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , author of the 2007 Project Vote report Representational Bias in the 2006 Election. The new memo analyses just-released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s November 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS), the definitive source of demographic data on registration and voting in America. The analysis examines participation in the 2008 general election by race/ethnicity, age, and income status. The result is the first comprehensive picture of who voted in 2008 compared to 2004.

“The exciting story from 2008 is not that overall turnout increased, but that the electorate we heard from at the polls more closely resembled the true demographics and diversity of the American people,” says Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote.  Historically, participation among African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters has lagged disproportionately behind other groups, but the Project Vote analysis suggests that this situation improved in 2008. African-American turnout surged from 60.3 in 2004 to 65.2 percent (an increase representing over 2 million voters) in 2008; Latino-American turnout increased by 2.5 points from 47.3 to 49.7 percent (also an increase of over 2 million voters); and Asian-American turnout increased about 3 percentage points from 44.5 to 47.8 percent (over 600,000 more voters).

Americans under the age of 30—another historically underrepresented population—also experienced a sharp increase in participation in 2008 compared to 2004. Overall, approximately 2.3 million more voters under the age of 30 voted in 2008 than in 2004. The turnout rate for this population compared to the last presidential election increased by approximately 2 percentage points.

The largest turnout rate gains were among young minority Americans. While White turnout in the under-30 age group was essentially unchanged between the two elections, turnout by African-Americans under 30 increased nearly 9 percentage points, which represents nearly 700,000 additional African-American voters under 30. Asian-American youth turnout also increased by an estimated 9.6 percentage points, and Latino youth turnout increased by 5.2 percentage points.

These increases all surpassed the margins of error of difference between the two election cycles compared.

While these increases in participation are encouraging, Hess points out that there is still much room for improvement. There still appears to be significant disparities in participation based on income, for example. While comparisons to 2004 based on income were not readily available for technical reasons, in 2008 there was a 20 point gap in the registration rate between Americans from households earning $25,000 or less per year and those earning over $100,000.

“Moreover,” the memo says, “although there were gains among young voters, only half of voters under the age of 30 voted in 2008, leaving over 21 million citizens in that group alone sitting on the sidelines on Election Day.”

Still, it is clear that this electorate was more representative of the American population than any in recent memory, a fact that may have made a real difference on November 4.

“Over 5.4 million more votes were cast in 2008 than in 2004, and 4.9 million—or 91 percent of the new votes—were from people of color,” says Slater. “There is no doubt that this surge in voting by minorities and young people had a powerful impact on the outcome of the election.”

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Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in historically underrepresented communities. Project Vote takes a leadership role in nationwide voting rights and election administration issues, working through research, legal services, and advocacy to ensure that our constituencies are not prevented from registering and voting.
www.projectvote.org