Voter Turnout Fell to 45% in ‘90, Census Bureau Says

Only 45% of eligible voters cast ballots in the 1990 congressional election, down one percentage point from 1986, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

While the decline occurred across most racial, educational and income levels and in all regions of the country, it was most pronounced among blacks, whose participation fell from 43% to 39% and Westerners, whose participation fell from 48% to 45%.

Differences in voting frequency between the sexes were slight, with women’s participation increasing a percentage point to 45.2% and men’s participation holding steady at 44.6%

When education levels were taken into account, only eligible voters with one year of college increased their voting frequency, going up to 56%.

Voting also increased slightly among those who made more than $50,000 a year and those who earned less than $5,000 a year.

The results were reported in a supplement to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Study. It noted that results from most household voter surveys typically overstate voter turnout because more people tend to say they have voted than actually do.

The study attributed at least some of the decline in voting to the fact that “baby boomers” are now fully of voting age. That group, primarily between the ages of 26 and 44, have tended to vote less often than people in the 45- to 66-year-old bracket, the study said.

White voter turnout remained at 47%, while Latino turnout fell three percentage points to 21%, according to the study.