The largest membership organization in the state, the AARP, revealed the political makeup of those age 50 and older Tuesday after studying the voting habits and trends of Idaho’s seniors. Politicians on all levels and from both parties might want to pay attention to the study, which found that 37 percent of Idaho’s seniors identify themselves with neither the Republicans or the Democrats.
Seniors in the state are likely to vote in elections, the study finds. Those 50 years of age and older make up approximately 56 percent of all registered voters in Idaho. In 2008, 93 percent of those registered voters over 50 made it to the polls to vote.
The study also lays out the political affiliations of seniors. According to the report, 37 percent of respondents identified themselves as independents rather than belonging to a political party. Republican party affiliation was found to be at 29 percent, while 17 percent said they are Democrats. Those statistics may be a little bit leading, however. When it comes to personal politics, 53 percent of AARP members identified themselves as conservative, while 26 percent deemed their views as moderate. Only 8 percent of respondents said their political beliefs are liberal.
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Comparing your brief treatment with Betsy Russell’s report in the Spokesman Review, and the full report from the AARP, I’m underwhelmed here.
It’s an interesting study, to be sure. Your report is a mush.
“revealed the political makeup of its members”
Who was polled? (Hint: they did not sample from AARP members.)
“Those 50 years of age and older make up approximately 56 percent of all registered voters in Idaho.”
Betsy talked to an AARP spokesman: “Irwin said the Idaho AARP combined the poll with its own research on Idaho voter registration and voting activity to determine that 56 percent of all Idaho voters will be 50 or older this year.”
If you rewrote your line to make it sound different, you unfortunately
garbled the alleged fact. It sounds kind of the same, but “those
50 years of age and older” as the subject is just wrong.
“In 2008, 93 percent of those over 50 made it to the polls to vote.”
Really? Where did you find that fact?
The press release (which is what I assume the PRNewswire item is) said “In 2008, 93% of registered voters 50 plus hit the polls in Idaho, nearly 10% more than registered voters under 50.”
My emphasis of the qualifier you left out. There’s also the disparity between voter turnout and this self-reporting. 93% of older voters and 83+% of younger… when have we had 85-90% voter turnout in Idaho?
“The study also lays out the political affiliations of AARP members.”
No, it does not, because THEY DID NOT POLL AARP MEMBERS. They did find that 48% (+/-4.9%) of the 406 people they polled were AARP members, but nowhere–other than here–did I see any suggestion about answers cross-tabbed by AARP membership. If you have another source for this different statement, perhaps you should cite it.
Fort,
You are right again on a few issues. I did put a call into Irwin, but he has yet to return it.
Dustin
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