INDICATOR 1: VOTER REGISTRATION
2008 Pennsylvania Average 70.1%
2008 National Average 71.0%

Pennsylvania ranked 35th among all states in voter registration rate, at 70.1%, equivalent to the national voter registration rate for all eligible citizens in 2008 (71.0%). Pennsylvania's voter registration rate remained relatively stable, with a decline of one and a half percentage points compared with the registration rate of the last Presidential Election in 2004.

INDICATOR 2: VOTER TURNOUT
2008 Pennsylvania Average 62.4%
2008 National Average 63.6%

Pennsylvania ranked 39th in voter turnout among those 18 and older in the November 2008 election. 62.4% of all eligible voters turned out at the polls in Pennsylvania compared with 63.6% nationally. Pennsylvania's number marks a decline of two percentage points compared with the average turnout of the 2004 Presidential Election.

Consistently, Pennsylvania has followed the national trends concerning voter turnout while remaining signicantly above the national average with the exception of the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections.

Opportunities for Growth
According to the data for the 2008 Presidential Election, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to increase the rate of voter turnout by:

1. Targeting the demographics with the lowest voter turnout
• Pennsylvania voters of Hispanic origin vote 12.4 percentage points less than non–Hispanic voters.
• Single Pennsylvanians that have never been married performed 12.7% lower than their married counterparts when it came to voting. This is largely due to the fact that young Pennsylvanians are less likely to be married.
• Unemployed Pennsylvanians vote 16% less often than their employed peers.

2. Closing the gap between voter registration and actual voter turnout (voter fulllment)
• African Americans had the best voter fulllment at 95.9% with only a 2.7 percentage points difference between the portion of eligible voters registered and the portion that actually went to the polls in 2008.
• 8.8% fewer Hispanics voted than were registered the same year, with an 85.2% fulllment rate.
• 8.0% fewer Whites voted than were registered, with a fulllment rate of 88.6%.
• 10.9% fewer Pennsylvanians with some high school education voted than were registered, with a fulllment rate of 77.2%.
• 8.9% fewer unemployed Pennsylvanians voted than were registered, with a fulllment rate of 84.8%.

3. Increasing the education level of Pennsylvania voters
Only 25.9% of Pennsylvanians have a college degree. 3 The data illustrates the inextricable direct link between voting and education. The numbers decrease precipitously as education level decreases.
• At 84.7%, Pennsylvanians with a college degree had the highest voter registration rate. Of that number 80.2% actually voted—a 94.7% fulllment rate. These were the highest numbers in all three categories (registration, turnout, fulllment) among all voter subgroups.
• 64.7% of Pennsylvanians with only a high school diploma registered to vote. Of that number 55.2% actually turned out to vote—an 85.3% fulllment rate.
• 47.7% of Pennsylvanians with less than a high school diploma registered to vote. Of that number 36.8% actually turned out to vote—a 77.2% fulllment rate. These were the lowest numbers in all three categories among all voter subgroups.