Iowa Voting Series, Paper 5: An Examination of Iowa Turnout Statistics Since 2000 by Gender, Age Group, and Party

This is the fifth paper in a series examining aspects of voting in Iowa. It examines Iowa’s turnout in presidential and midterm elections since 2000 with a focus on gender, age group, and party. Results show that the percentage of registered voters who are women is quite similar among four of the five age groups at just above 50%. The percentage jumps to about 58% for the oldest age group. There are clear differences between the parties for each age group. Democrats have the highest percentage of women, Republicans the lowest, and No Party registrants between the two. The differences are greatest in the two youngest age groups and are more compressed in the next two. In the oldest group the percentage is nearly the same for Republicans and No Party registrants, while Democrats are still the highest. In terms of turnout, a general pattern of women having a higher turnout percentage in presidential elections and men a higher percentage in midterm elections is fairly persistent across parties and age groups. The turnout percentages for both men and women increase for each age group except the oldest. Republican men and women tend to have the highest turnout percentages regardless of age group, but are closely followed by men and women Democrats. Consistent with prior papers, the turnout percentages for men and women No Party voters are clearly below that of voters of either major party.