By Kevin Bessler | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Illinois is one of the worst states in the country for representation on Election Day.
A study by the personal finance website WalletHub compared each state’s voter distribution to its electorate distribution by race, age and gender to come up with a Voter Representation Index. Then they applied the same approach to determine the National Voter Representation Index, which compares U.S. voters to the national electorate based on four additional demographic categories: employment status, family income, educational attainment and marital status.
Analyst Jill Gonzalez said Illinois ranked 45th in the nation with a voter representation index score of 84.11, with race representation lowering the overall score.
“In Illinois, people that are getting to the polls are not necessarily representing the people that live in the state, and that happens the most when it comes to race, but it also happens with age as well,” said Gonzalez.
Although demographic composition does not necessarily reflect American’s political preferences, the data historically has helped predict voting behavior among different segments of society. A recent Pew Research report found that very different demographic groups support Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
According to WalletHub, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Minnesota are the top five states expected to have the best representation on Election Day.
On the other end of the spectrum, South Dakota ranks last for its representation. It scored the worst in all three categories of race, age and gender representation. It is joined by Kansas, Tennessee, Florida and Washington state to comprise the five worst represented states on Election day.
