"This review of the survey data strongly points to the need for civic organizations and government officials (at all levels of government) to continue to expand access to voter registration," says Hess. "For their part, governments should view bias in the electorate as a call to embrace voter registration as an affirmative responsibility through better implementation of laws relating to the registration of young, low-income and minority voters."
Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate analyzes just-released data on the 2006 election by the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS). Consistent with previous years, the report finds that electoral participation -- both registration and voting -- is stratified by social and economic factors, including age, income, education and race and ethnicity:
- A substantial majority of eligible Americans (52 percent) did not participate in the 2006 general election, either because they were not registered (32 percent) or because they were registered but did not vote (20 percent). Of those registered, however, the majority (71 percent) did vote.
- Americans between 18 and 29 were approximately 20 percent of the eligible voter population but only 10 percent of the voting population in 2006.
- In registration, non-Hispanic Blacks lagged behind non-Hispanic Whites by 10 percentage points: 61 percent to 71 percent. Only 54 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of eligible Asian-Americans report being registered.
- In voting, non-Hispanic Blacks also lagged behind non-Hispanic Whites by 10 percentage points: 51 percent to 61 percent. Approximately 32 percent of eligible Latino and Asian-American citizens voted.
- If all eligible minorities had voted at the rate of non-Hispanic Whites, more than 7.5 million additional Americans would have participated in the 2006 elections.