Women Vastly Outnumbering Men in Early Voting

by: tremayne

Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 10:45

I've taken a look at the gender breakdown in a couple of the early voting states and was 1) not surprised to see more women voting than men and 2) shocked to see by how much they are out-voting men.

It's in the hundreds of thousands of votes in states like North Carolina and Georgia. In Georgia, of the 1.6 million votes cast so far, approximately 58 percent of voters are women. In North Carolina the percentage of women is about 57. In both cases that works out to at least a quarter million more female voters than male.

Those of you tracking early voting in other states take a look at the gender breakdown (if it is available) and put it in comments. I also wonder just how unusual this is. I think women outnumbering men in voting is fairly normal but the gap is so wide this year I was quite surprised. Since Barack Obama is far ahead of John McCain among women in national polling this is obviously great news for ~~John McCain~~ Barack Obama.

tremayne :: Women Vastly Outnumbering Men in Early Voting

Tags: Election 2008, John McCain, Barack Obama, Women, (All Tags)

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Women Vastly Outnumbering Men in Early Voting | 6 comments

Hard to tell in FL (0.00 / 0)

I expect the numbers are similar in Florida, but that information isn't available from the early-voting data I have access to. It could be cross-referenced with voter registration information from other sources, since I have the voter ID# and name of all the early voters, but I don't have the registration database.

Conduct your own interview of Sarah Palin!

by: fwiffo @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 09:56:25 AM CDT

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Could this just be stay at home/part-time housewives? (0.00 / 0)

That probably would be the easiest explanation of how more women could find the time to early vote.

by: LSdemocrat @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 09:59:22 AM CDT

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It could be this in combination with the other extreme (4.00 / 1)

Hyper-busy women who found it easier to carve out some time any time over the last month rather than on election day, specifically.

by: Matt H @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 10:08:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Or maybe just the opposite... (4.00 / 2)

For many women, their time is much less flexible than men's -- I'd guess that women may be taking advantage of the opportunity to vote without being tied up for an unanticipatable amount of time on a single set day when they may not be able to be away from work, kids, other obligations.

by: NYSusan @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 10:12:10 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

is this good news (0.00 / 0)

might this also suggest that a disproportionate number of men will wait to vote until Tuesday, thus decreasing our current advantage?

by: Marc Davidson @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 13:38:58 PM CDT

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Age related? (0.00 / 0)

Have you adjusted your early voter data for age? Women outlive men, and older voters have much, much higher turnout than younger voters. Even in an election when younger voters turnout higher than normal, they are still far behind older folks.

Older voters voters are a high percentage of the early vote right now, and women outnumber men in that group.

by: cdmc2 @ Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 13:43:50 PM CDT

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Women Vastly Outnumbering Men in Early Voting | 6 comments