[TRU Research] Data on voting by income

[Katie Wilson]

Hey all,

I’m going to shamelessly use this list to ask for some data help for a Crosscut column I’m working on, not directly TRU-related. Nationally there’s a strong correlation between voting rates and income <https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/income-gap-at-the-polls-113997>— as you might expect, poor people tend not to vote. I was looking for something about the strength of this trend in Washington state or King County, and I found this story <https://www.kuow.org/stories/the-neighborhoods-with-highest-and-lowest-voter-turnout-in-king-county>, which is good but not super detailed. However, there is also this map and data set: https://www.communitiescount.org/voter-registration-voter-turnout <https://www.communitiescount.org/voter-registration-voter-turnout>

I played around with the layers in the map a little, enough to know there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there. It looks like you can download .csvs, but I’m not adept enough with the format to figure out quickly how to get to what I want. I’m interested specifically in correlations between:

1. Percent registered voters by census tract
2. 2019 general election voter turnout by precinct

And, in the King County demographics layer —> Income:
A. Median household income
B. Percent below 200% of federal poverty level

I’m interested to see how each of 1. and 2. correlate with each of A. and B. Perhaps in the form of scatter graphs? 

If anyone is interested and has time to dig into this, let me know— and maybe reply on this list if you’re working on it so no one is duplicating efforts unless they want to.

Thanks!
Katie

Katie Wilson
General Secretary
Transit Riders Union
https://transitriders.org
206-781-7204

The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and poor people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities, taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we need to change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will fight to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in Seattle and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, affordable, and reliable public transit.

I also write opinions <https://crosscut.com/author/katie-wilson> for Crosscut. Sign up for my newsletter here <http://eepurl.com/g_D3nf>.
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