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Show 559,000 Expected to Vote In Utah Next Month Approximately 550,000 Utahns will be casting ballots in the November presidential elections if past performance is any guide. At least that is the prediction made by Utah Foundation, the private research re-search organization, in a study just released of Utah's participation partici-pation in general elections. The Foundation report indicates indi-cates that next month's vote is expected to be about 71,500 or 15 greater than the number of votes cast by Utahns in the 1972 presidential elections. Traditionally, Utah has ranked at or near the top among the fifty states in the proportion of its voting-age population who actually cast ballots in a general election. During the past four presidential presiden-tial elections, Utah's participa- tion has been 23 to 27 greater than that of the nation as a whole. Utah led the entire nation in the percentage of voting-age population casting ballots for presidential electors in the 1964 and the ,1968 elections. Foundation analysts point out that Utah's record of voting in nonpresidential elections elec-tions also is significantly better than that of most other states. Utah led the nation in the percent of its voting-age population casting votes for U.S. Representatives during the 1960, 1964, 1968, 1970, and 1972 general elections. Since 1960, Utah's participation participa-tion has been anywhere between 28 and 55 better than the national record of voter participation in Congressional Congres-sional elections. Among the factors cited by the Foundation accounting for Utah's superior record of voter participation in the election process are the following: 1. Utah has a long heritage of involvement in civic affiars. Political, church, and community com-munity leaders over the years have actively encouraged citizen citi-zen participation in the political politi-cal process. Also Utah was one of the first states to extend the franchise to women and to all citizens. 2. Utah leads the nation in the educational attainment of its adult citizenry. There is a strong correlation between education and voter participation. participa-tion. 3. Utah has a smaller proportion of resident aliens, who cannot vote, than most other states. It is estimated that 1.1 of Utah's voting-age population consists of aliens, compared with 2.3 for the U.S. as a whole. 4. Utah has maintained a strong two-party system, and there usually have been spirited contests in most general elections. It is estimated that there will be 783,000 persons of voting-age voting-age residing in Utah on November 1, 1976. Of this number, approximately 110,000 are potential new voters who are reaching voting age since the last presidential election in 1972. After allowing allow-ing for death and interstate residence changes, the voting-age voting-age population is expected to record a net gain of 84,000 individuals between the 1972 and 1976 elections. , The Foundation study also shows that Utah voters generally gen-erally are younger than those for the nation as a whole. In fact, Utah ranks second behind Alaska among the fifty states in the proportion of potential voters in the 18 to 24 age category. The median age of the voting population in Utah is 39.2 years, compared with 43.0 years for the United States. |
