[Wallet News] Election history reveals a perpetually glaring problem in America: low voter turnout among certain demographic groups, including young, minority and low-income citizens. Although demographic composition does not necessarily reflect Americans’ political conscience, the data historically have helped to predict voting behavior among different segments of society and consequently have impacted election outcomes. A recent Pew Research report, for instance, found that very different demographic groups support Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
In previous analyses of the U.S. electorate, WalletHub determined which states’ and metro areas’ populations most closely mirror the rest of the nation. We also compared the likeness of the U.S. with Iowa and New Hampshire. On the heels of those reports and ahead of this November’s presidential election, WalletHub’s analysts determined which of the 50 states’ voters are most demographically representative of their electorates. More specifically, we compared each state’s voter distribution to its electorate distribution by race, age and gender to determine the state’s Voter Representation Index. We then applied the same approach to determine the National Voter Representation Index, which compares U.S. voters to the national electorate based on four additional demographic categories: employment status, family income, educational attainment and marital status.
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