Despite all the media coverage of last month’s elections, the majority of North Carolina voters did not cast a ballot.
44% of the state’s registered voters cast a ballot in this year’s midterm elections. That’s better than 37% in 2006, but Bob Hall with Democracy North Carolina says it’s still pretty low.
His group analyzed voter data from 81 counties. Republican turnout was 50% - well above Democrats. Older white Republicans had the best turnout. And young voters had the worst – just 18%.
Bob Hall: It was particularly disturbing to see such a dropoff from the presidential year, where young folks were excited. To have less than one in five registered young persons go to vote -- it was really abysmal.
Hall says some pundits have blamed low African-American turnout for Democratic losses, but black turnout was actually one-third higher this year than in 2006.