Voting gets better with age

While talking yesterday to Auditor Greg Kimsey about why Clark County had the lowest voter turnout in the state in the Aug. 7 primary, he suggested one possible reason turnout here was lower than other counties in the Portland media market was age.

Clark County likely has more younger voters than, say, Skamania and Cowlitz counties.

The Secretary of State’s Office did have a breakdown by age groups of statewide voter turnout in the 2008 primary and general election:

Ages 18-24: 18% in primary, 68% in general.

Ages 25-34: 19%, 74%.

Ages 35-44: 27%, 82%.

Ages 45-54: 41%, 87%.

Ages 55-64: 58%, 91%.

Ages 65-plus: 72%, 91%.

So what’s the makeup of voters in Clark County? Kimsey’s office uses different age brackets, but for what it’s worth here’s the breakdown of ages of registered voters.

Ages 18-25 – 10%

Ages 26-30 – 7%

Ages 31-40 – 16%

Ages 41-50 – 19%

Ages 51-60 – 20%

Ages 61-70 – 16%

Ages 71-80 – 8%

Ages 80+ – 4%

And here’s a breakdown by age of Clark County turnout among registered voters in the Aug. 7 primary:

Ages 18-25 11.9% turnout, down 4% from 2008 primary.

Ages 26-30 9.9% turnout, down 5.2% from 2008.

Ages 31-40 13.7% turnout, down 6.2% from 2008.

Ages 41-50 20.7% turnout, down 8.5% from 2008.

Ages 51-60 34.3% turnout, down 9.9% from 2008.

Ages 61-70 52.2% turnout, down 9.7% from 2008.

Ages 71-80 64.6% turnout, down 7.5% from 2008.

Ages 80+ 58.2% turnout, down 6.4% from 2008.