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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCHART: The 2014 Electorate Was Really, Really Old
Source: TPM
Older voters helped propel Republicans to sweeping victories Tuesday in Senate and gubernatorial races nationwide, according to exit polls from NBC News.
The disparity between the under-30 and over-60 was the widest it's been in a decade, those polls found. The seniors comprised 37 percent of the electorate; young people made up 12 percent.
That was even more extreme than 2010, another great Republican year, when the split was 32 percent over 60 and 12 percent under 30.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/exit-polls-2014-electorate-old
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)when we should have stayed home. Next young person who blames me for their fucked up life can go pound sand.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)I worked my precinct. Granted, it is senior mobile home parks. But the facts are -- Dems are old also! I have folk in their 90's still voting. They vote by mail, so probably do not show up on in-person polls. I do not know the source of the polls and have nothing to say re the under 30 folk.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Thirty years from now the film Idiocracy will be regarded as a warmhearted documentary from the good old days.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)A majority of voters were between 30 and 60. It's amazing that the chart completely ignores that group, don't you think? Does that age group not count?
I'm 69 years old. I always vote for Democrats. Always have. My wife is 58, and so does she.
It's not just age. The majority of voters are in the middle age group.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)Political/cultural analysis always pits things as Boomer vs Millennial.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)The majority of voters are middle aged, frankly. by ignoring those voters, such charts paint an incorrect picture. Yes, there are a lot of boomers who vote Republican, but there also many who are Democrats who vote in every election like clockwork. Their votes count, too. As for millennials, they don't all vote for Democrats either. The divisions in that middle-aged majority are the important ones, since they are a majority of voters.
I hate it when someone just focuses on half of the electorate and draws ageist conclusions based on that. That's what the chart in the OP represents, and it doesn't even show how the two groups voted, just that they did.
Charts like that suck, because they don't have all of the information shown. It's impossible to draw any conclusions from raw vote counts of two disparate age groups while ignoring the largest group of all.
Stallion
(6,476 posts)nm
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)I am 35.
Was told I was the youngest voter that had checked in at my polling station. I'm 28.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)I rushed to get to the polling station in time.
Couldn't it make it prior to work. Worked until around 4:30 and I commute 40 miles each way to work. Fought traffic and got to the polling station before close.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)Unless you could get time off that is.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)with edgy Libertarian lies about how voting is useless and both parts are exactly the same.
Just go to Reddit and see the shit posted there, most of the posters there are Millennials.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)So good to see you post here again!
AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)being a three times larger voting bloc than the people who have to care the most about the long term future of America.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)That's the group between 30 and 60 years old. They're the majority. Why leave them out?
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,198 posts)And using it to their advantage politically!
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)and get their demographic to the polls. Old folks vote. They will always vote. The middle-aged folks who make up the missing majority in that chart also vote. The only ones not voting are the under 30 crowd. Why are they not voting? That's the question to be asking. Get them out to vote, if you're in that age group. That's my suggestion.
JHB
(37,161 posts)A comprehensive, nuts-and-bolts program to GOTV that isn't tied to any one candidate, so it doesn't flag in elections that don't have the focus and drama of a presidential election.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)Nobody's listening.
okieinpain
(9,397 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)My parents cohorts (late 70s, early 80s) -- yikes. They turned out to be a nasty, greedy, racist bunch who are very susceptible to Foxlike propaganda. Yes, yes, exceptions abound.
I can't say much for my Reagan Youth generation, either.
jillan
(39,451 posts)bring out the young women voters???