Iowa Voting Series, Paper 7: An Examination of Iowa Voter Distribution in Elections Since 2000

This is the seventh paper in a series examining aspects of voting in Iowa. The second through fifth papers in this series examined Iowa’s turnout statistics in midterm and presidential elections since 2000 in various combinations of party, gender, and age group. For the most part, these papers only examined the turnout percentages within each group or subgroup. The sixth paper changed focus and examined turnout in terms of absentee and early voting. They looked at the data in terms of turnout percentages for the subgroups, but also in terms of the distributions of subgroups among the voters for a particular election. Looking at voter distributions provided additional information regarding absentee voting, so this paper returns to the prior analyses for an examination of the group and subgroup distributions. The results show that Republicans have a larger proportion of the voters in six of the seven elections examined. Women were consistently more numerous in all seven elections. Among the five indicated age groups, the 18-24 and 25-34 groups had the smallest proportions. For the three older groups (35-49,-50-64, and 65 & Over) the pattern was more complex, but driven largely by underlying changes in voter registration numbers. Results for combinations of gender, age group, and party are also examined.