We have made the statement that “nothing should happen in Lake County unless seniors want it to happen”.  It was based on the fact that our population is aging and if they express themselves at the ballot box, no levy or issue can pass without their vote.

We decided to analyze the voting records published by the Lake County Board of Elections.  We will start with the registered voters.

Here is a report showing the number of voters by municipality, party affiliation and age.

lake county registered voters by muni-party-age

Here is a summary of total voters by municipality, and party affiliation – sorted by total number of voters.  The number tell us that 56% of registered voters are in the top 5 of 23 municipalities.  Voters with no party affiliation make up 55.58% of registered voters, Republicans make up 27.54%, and Democrats 16.75% of total registered voters.

summary of party affiliation registered voters

Here is a report of the total voters by party affiliation and age grouping:

The numbers show that voters under 50 years of age favor no party affiliation with 58.04% not choosing to associate with a party. The over 50 voters tend to choose a party with 67.62% of Democrats to be over 50, and 73.31% of Republicans are “rounding third and headed home”.

Overall, 54.91% of registered voters are 50 years old or older, while 45.09% of voters are under 50%.  Not quite the domination that we expected.  So as they say, it is all about “getting out the voters” to the polls.

summary of registered voters by party and age %

We were curious to determine how the number of registered voters compared to the actual population of Lake County.    We could not find statistics that showed just total eligible voters, but we did find total population numbers.   But first a little lesson on the U.S. Constitution – for the uninformed that is a document that is supposed to be the “law of the land”, but is being dismissed every day by many including Supreme Court justices.

“The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from using age as a reason for denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States who are at least eighteen years old.”

Here is a schedule comparing the total population of Lake County by municipality to the total registered voters.  We then projected the potential numbers of voters for each political party if we had 100% of the population registered.   The numbers tell us that 69% of the population are registered to vote, and that number, of  course, would be higher if we could remove those under eighteen years of age.  The projection uses the current percentages of registered voters by party and municipality to extrapolate the potential voters for each party.

registered voters to total population

In our opinion, the long term viability and success of any party is determined by the manner in which the party treats the under 40 non-affiliated voters and potential voters.  Quite frankly, and speaking very personally, the Lake County Republican Party’s treatment of a very fine, patriotic, young, Christian woman, named Kim L., caused me to switch to being an Independent.  The party that provides opportunity, and hope to the younger generation, instead of maintaining their cabal of entrenched party members promoting their own self-interest, will prevail.  You will be judged on your actions and not just your words. Party platforms are only words on a page.

Moving on to more analysis of numbers – we next tried to determine who voted in the November 6, 2018 election.

Here is a summary of the voters in the November 6, 2018 election by municipality, party and age.

summary of 11-6-18 voters by muni, party and age

Here is the summary of total voters by party and age:

summary of 11-6-18 voters by party and age

Interesting to note is that 66.13% of the voters were 50 years of age or older, while the under 50 voting bloc accounted for 33.87% of the voters.   Remember from a previous schedule the under 50 registered voters accounted for 45.09% of the voters, and the over 50 voters accounted for 54.91% of total voters.  Therefore, the over 50 voters showed up on 11-6-18  and made their voices heard.  Like we said – nothing should happen in Lake County unless seniors want it to happen. (sorry to include 50 year olds as seniors – but reality sucks…..)

Here is a very interesting report……it compares the total registered voters to the actual voters on 11-6-18 by party affiliation and age.

comparison of registered voters to actual 11-6 voters

Looks like the Democrats beat the Republicans in turnout % – 85.58% versus 83.70%.  However, more Republican voters went to the polls (36,698) than there are registered Democrats (26,662). [As a side note, how could Democrats have had such a stranglehold on Lake County politics for so long? ,,,,,makes one go hmmmmmm?]  The Democrats need the NON’s (not affiliated with a party)  to come to their side of the aisle to ensure victory.

Hope you enjoyed the analysis….all complaints can be put on a “post-it’ note and mailed to me…..

Categories: Lake

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