Indiana is one of the best states in the country when it comes to election day representation, according to a new study by Wallethub.
To determine which states are most and least representative of their electorates, WalletHub utilized demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race in its comparison of states’ voters and their electorates.
Indiana had an overall voter representation of 93.21. That’s 3rd best in the entire country only behind Virginia (#2) and Maryland (#1). Indiana also has the best gender representation (99.94). About 51% of Indiana’s population is women and 49% is men.
“If the people that voted mimic the entire state’s representation, that’s when you know things look like they’re supposed to. In Indiana, we saw that when it comes to race, age, and gender, the people that voted very closely mimic the state’s population. That tends to be a good thing,” said Jill Gonzalez, a Wallethub analyst.
The latest numbers from the American Community Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, say the racial composition of Indiana is 83.59% white, 9.33% African American, two or more races 2.45%, and 2.18% Asian.
“So we look at the voter turnout rate and then we look at the demographics of that broken down. After that, we look at the entire state’s voter electorate (the people who can be voting) and see how that breaks down as well,” said Gonzalez. “For example, Indiana skews a little bit older than most states. The people voting who are age 45 and up have a very good showing. That means the people voting represent the state well.”
The most recent numbers show 25.5% of Indiana’s population are age 25-44 and 25.2% are age 45-64.
These numbers date back to the last presidential election in 2016, but Gonzalez says these numbers could look a lot different after this election.
“This election is a different beast. We have more people voting early than ever before. We also have more people voting by mail than ever before, so that could change a lot of these numbers,” said Gonzalez.
It’s also a nationwide trend that minorities are less likely to show up at the polls. There are several possibilities for that.
“One is that they might feel ignored in politics in general, especially when they see a lot of people running that don’t look like them. They see a lot of people winning that don’t look like them. It also has a lot to do with access. We see this happening in places like Florida, for example, where registering is harder if you’re a minority voter,” said Gonzalez.
South Dakota finished last in the study at 78.87.
