WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- A record number of people participated in the 2002 off-year elections, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday.
The bureau said 128 million people were registered to vote in the non-presidential election in 2002 and 89 million told the bureau they had indeed voted. That means 69 percent of those registered voted in November 2002. In 1998, the previous off-year election, 68 percent of the 123 million registered voters voted.
Breaking the data down by region, the Census Bureau said eligible citizens in the Midwest were the most likely to vote, totaling 49 percent of the voting pool in that area. The participation figure was about 45 percent in the Northeast, South and West.
Maine and Minnesota, at 80 percent, were listed as the states with the highest voter registration. Minnesota and South Dakota led among those who actually voted, with 67 percent of registered voters participating.
The Census Bureau has released data for each off-year election since 1966, when it said 79 million people were registered and 63 million voted. However, the minimum voting age was 21 in 1966.
