Who Are First-Time Voters?
Perhaps not surprisingly, the signature characteristic of first-time voters is their youth. Among registered voters, 62% of those who say they will be voting for the first time are below age 30, including one in five who are the minimum voting age of 18. First-time voters aged 30 or older are predominantly between the ages of 30 and 49. Given this decidedly young age distribution, it is not surprising that first-time voters exhibit many other characteristics of young adults. • Forty-eight percent of first-time voters report that they are full-time students. • Nearly half of first-time voters (47%) come from a racial or ethnic minority group. That is higher than the proportion of first-time voters who were minorities in 2004 (33%), and could reflect the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy. • Forty percent of first-time voters identify themselves as Democrats, 37% as independents, and only 23% as Republicans. • Thirty-two percent of first-time voters describe their political view
