Voting-Age Population Up 8 Million Since ’84
Nearly 183 million Americans will be old enough to vote in the presidential election this year, the Census Bureau estimated Tuesday. If past returns are any guide, however, only about half of them will go to the polls.
The bureau said that the nation’s voting-age population--the number of people 18 or older--is expected to be 182.6 million in November, about 8.1 million more than in 1984.
Of those Americans old enough to vote, the bureau estimated that 52% of them are women, about 11% are blacks and 7% are Latinos.
Expansion of the voting-age population does not necessarily translate into more voters, however. Not many more than half the citizens of voting age have cast ballots in recent presidential elections, and in the years without a White House contest the turnout has been even lighter.
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