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Senior Power at the Polls
SENIORS ARE FAR MORE likely than younger Americans to vote on Election Day. As a result, they play a much bigger role in election outcomes than their numbers would indicate. This is even truer of mid-term elections than of Presidential races, which tend to attract larger numbers of voters in all age groups.
According to exit poll results, voters over age 60 accounted for 29 percent of votes cast this year - up 4 percent from 2004. That year, Republicans won the senior vote, 53 to 48 percent nationwide. This November, however, Democrats won seniors - getting 50 percent of the vote versus the GOP's 48.
BIG VOTING BLOC. Some of this year's most tightly contested U.S. Senate races were in states with the largest populations of seniors. These include Pennsylvania (30 percent); Nebraska (27 percent); Rhode Island (27 percent); Montana (26 percent); Ohio (26 percent); Missouri (26 percent); and New Jersey (25 percent) — all states where the Democrat defeated the Republican.
Similarly, some of the hottest U.S. House races were in congressional districts with the largest populations of seniors, including Florida-22 (37 percent); Arizona-8 (31 percent); New York-24 (29 percent); Pennsylvania-7 (29 percent); Ohio-6 (29 percent); Iowa-1 (28 percent); Ohio-18 (27 percent); Connecticut-5 (26 percent); Pennsylvania-6 (26 percent); and Ohio-1 (25 percent). The Democrats won all but two of these (Ohio-1 and Pennsylvania-6).
GOODBYE CLAY SHAW. The victory in Florida- 22 was particularly gratifying, as voters finally ousted Rep. Clay Shaw (R) - longtime chair of the House Social Security Subcommittee. Shaw had proposed a plan to privatize Social Security, while opposing repeal of the two Social Security offsets (GPO and WEP) that penalize many public pensioners. Shaw was defeated by Ron Klein (D), 51 to 47 percent.
This year, senior voters had some powerful issues to consider when casting their votes. Polls of likely voters just before Election Day showed that the war in Iraq topped the list of seniors' concerns (38 percent), but Social Security and Medicare issues came in second, cited by 22 percent.
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