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Who Voted?

By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: December 7, 2008

SEBRING - Almost everyone understands who makes up the majority of voters in Highlands County: white GOP voters over the age of 50. But minorities also showed up, and most of them voted Democrat.

There were 3,174 African-Americans voting in the Nov. 4 presidential election, and only 133 were registered Republicans.

According to a statistical analysis released Thursday by Elections Supervisor Joe Campbell's office, there are 66,533 registered voters in Highlands County; 45,333 voted in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Hispanics, the only other minority category in the analysis, were also overwhelmingly Democrats. There are 1,165 males who identified themselves as Hispanics, and 1,591 females. But of that total, only 846, or 30 percent, are Republicans.

"A lot of Hispanics felt the majority of the Republican congressmen and senators were against the immigration," said Pat Hogan, chairman of the local Democratic Party.

Blacks, he said, have been loyal Democrats since Franklin Roosevelt. "He won and helped them out of the Depression. Their parents taught them that that's the party that cares about them."

Voters were also sorted by age, and it's true that the younger people are, the less they tend to vote. On Nov. 4, only 14,228 under age 50 cast their ballots; 31,105 were older than 50.

Democrats didn't outnumber Republicans in any age category, but Dems came closest in the youngest category: 1,094 voters were Democrats, 1,147 were registered with the GOP. However, 472 were independents or in a minority party. Of course, the analysis doesn't show how they actually voted.

What becomes clear is that loyalty is waning in both major parties. About 40 percent of the 18-25 year-olds are Democrats; 41 percent are Republicans. But 19 percent are independent or belong to minor parties.

The younger voters are, the less devoted they are to parties: by the time they're in the 41-45 category, only 30.1 percent are Democrats, 48.2 percent are Republicans, and 22.7 percent aren't affiliated with a major party.

Party loyalty is at its highest in the age 66-plus category: there are only 11.5 percent independents.

That's one reason why Democrats rarely win county offices.

"The older voters I know are from the Midwest," Hogan said. "They were pretty strong Republicans when they came here. As opposed to West Palm Beach and Broward, where they're more evenly divided, maybe even a little more pro-Democrat."