With less than a week until Election Day and nearly four in 10 voters in states with no voter-ID requirements falsely believing they must present identification in order to vote, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Most & Least Politically Engaged States.
In order to determine where Americans are most involved in politics, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across seven key indicators of political engagement. They range from “percentage of registered voters in the 2012 presidential election” to “total political contributions per adult population.”
Most Politically Engaged States | Least Politically Engaged States | ||||
1 | District of Columbia | 42 | Nevada | ||
2 | Wisconsin | 43 | Wyoming | ||
3 | Colorado | 44 | Utah | ||
4 | Maine | 45 | Arizona | ||
5 | Minnesota | 46 | Tennessee | ||
6 | Massachusetts | 47 | Hawaii | ||
7 | Iowa | 48 | Arkansas | ||
8 | Virginia | 49 | Texas | ||
9 | Mississippi | 50 | West Virginia | ||
10 | Oregon | 51 | Oklahoma |
Key Stats
- The District of Columbia has the highest percentage of citizens who actually voted in the 2012 presidential election, 75.90 percent, which is 1.6 times higher than in West Virginia, where the percentage is lowest, 47.80 percent.
- Maine has the highest percentage of citizens who actually voted in the 2014 midterm elections, 61.50 percent, which is 1.8 times higher than in West Virginia, where the percentage is lowest, 33.60 percent.
- There is a 0.4 correlation between the overall ranking of the states for political engagement and the level of education in each state (measured as the percentage of the population with at least a bachelor’s degree).
- Blue states are more politically engaged, with an average ranking of 20.30, compared with 32.42 for Red states (1 = Best).
Florida Turnout visual by PROXEME & CATECOMM