Kentucky young adults are among the most politically engaged in the U.S., study shows
Kentucky’s older generations don’t participate in elections as much as their counterparts do in other states but younger Kentuckians are among the most politically engaged, a new study shows as early voting began Tuesday.
Because of election data from the 2012 and 2016 elections, as well as the 2018 midterms, Kentucky was ranked the seventh-least politically engaged state in the country, according to a new study by WalletHub, a personal finance website.
Kentucky ranked 44th in the percentage of the state’s electorate that voted, according to the analysis. Kentucky also had the third-lowest total political contributions per adult.
The overall low marks occurred despite an uptick in participation in the 2018 midterms: Kentucky ranked 25th for the percentage of the electorate that voted in 2018. The state ranked 38th in the United States for the increase in percentage of voters from 2012 to 2016, according to WalletHub.
The only states that ranked worse in voting were Tennessee (45), West Virginia (46), Alabama (47), New Mexico (48), Mississippi (49) and Hawaii (50), according to the study. The top five states were Maine, Washington, Colorado, Maryland and Wyoming, according to the study.
About 72.7 percent of Maine’s electorate voted in 2016. That percentage dipped to 65.6 percent in 2018, according to WalletHub. About 66.3 percent of Washington’s electorate voted in 2016, and about 61.9 percent of the electorate voted in 2018, according to WalletHub. Kentucky’s percentages were about 57 percent in 2016 and about 53.8 percent in 2018, according to WalletHub.
While Kentucky ranked poorly as a whole, its young adult population was one of the most politically engaged in the United States, according to the study. Nearly 54 percent of Kentucky residents aged 18 to 24 are politically engaged, which ranks fourth among all states, according to the study. The top three are Virginia, Minnesota and Maryland.
Kentucky’s senior population, ages 65 and older, ranked 47th for political engagement, according to the study, which was worst among all the ranked states.
The study showed a strong correlation between education ranking and political involvement. Kentucky was ranked 44th in the United States in education quality, according to the study.
The study also showed that states that went blue in 2016 were more politically engaged than states which went red, on average. The average ranking of Democrat states was 18.2 and the average ranking of Republican states was 30.4.
Kentucky ranks higher in voter accessibility
One of Kentucky’s highest ranks came in voter accessibility policies. Kentucky ranked 16th in voter accessibility, according to the study. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Kentucky officials to expand voting options in order to alleviate exposure fears. The state encouraged absentee voting and opened polling places for early voting.
Early in-person voting in Lexington began at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at eight different polling places. The polling places are scheduled to be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays until Election Day on Nov. 3.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 9:08 AM.