North Carolina Millennials Are the Worst at Democracy

Michael Chase Pell Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 3, 2016

Of the 7.26 Million registered voters in North Carolina, Millennials account for 2,009,238, which is about 28% of all registered voters. That means Millennials, people aged 18–35, account for the largest registered voter demographic in North Carolina. In case you still don’t get it, we even outnumber our parents, the Boomers!

Now let’s talk about the 2012 election. How many of those registered voters actually… vote? Let’s take a look. The total turnout was 4540896, which is about 62% of all registered voters. That’s almost two-thirds, and beats the national average, 57.5%, by about 4 percentage points. But we expected NC to be above average like it already is in most things.

So, do turnout rates stay the same across the generations? Are we all equally responsible for the turnout rates? Of course not. So who do you think is most responsible for dragging down the average and not participating in political freedom?

And there it is. While all other generational groups beat the national average, the Millennials came in more than 10 % below the national average, and 20% below the next lowest generation. The Millennials hold the title for highest voter registration and the lowest voter turnout rates. Or put into superlative terms that our politicians are probably thinking,

“The Most Inefficient Use of My Time and Resources.”

I think we can, and should do better. We already have strength in numbers, why not participate and push for policies that benefit us?

Notes:

Albeit North Carolina is a top-10 population state and has demographics similar to the country taken as a whole, generalizing these findings to the rest of America is silly and most likely wrong.

All Data From NC State Board of Elections. Accessed in 2015.

Generation Ranges: