Indiana voter turnout rates low for 2010 election

A majority of Indiana voters did not turn out to vote in the 2010 Congressional election, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed. A significantly smaller percentage of people chose to vote in Indiana than they did in other states.

Indiana was one of four states in the nation to have a voter turnout rate of less than 40 percent with 39.4 percent. The other states were Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

The nationwide rate was 45.5 percent.

The nationwide voting rate among 18- to 24-year-olds was low. Only 21.3 percent of people in this age group voted in the election.

The survey found that Hispanic voters increased their share of the vote to the highest proportion since the Census Bureau began collecting data on ethnic groups in voter turnout data in 1974.

Hispanics made up 7  percent of the vote in the 2010 election. They make up approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population.

African-Americans had a 12 percent share of the vote, a 1 percent increase from the previous midterm election.

“These statistics show that the nation’s electorate is becoming increasingly diverse,” said Tiffany Julian of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Education and Social Stratification Branch. “The electorate looks much different than when we first started collecting these data 37 years ago.”

— Zach Ammerman