Unexpectedly Intriguing!
23 March 2006

Did you ever wonder why so many talking heads on television make a point of shooting down poll results related to political questions where the respondents aren't limited to the pool of registered voters?

Well, we didn't either here at Political Calculations, but thanks to research by the U.S. Census (available as a 592KB PDF document), we now know why: over 7 out of 8 registered voters vote (at least in the last big election in 2004)!

That compares to less than 6 out of 10 of the general population of the United States who are the legal voting age of 18 or older, and a bit more than 6 out of 10 who are also U.S. citizens. The following graph from the Census' study illustrates the actual percentages and numbers:

U.S. Voting Voters in 2004

So, the next time you hear about a political poll whose results aren't exclusively collected by surveying the pool of registered voters in the U.S., remember that it probably isn't worth the dollar value of the electrons being transmitted to communicate its results!

About Political Calculations

Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:

ironman at politicalcalculations

Thanks in advance!

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