Comparison of Voting Age Population to Registered Voters in the  
40 Largest U.S. Counties (23-MAR-01, GAO-01-560R).		 
								 
This report compares data on the number of registered voters for 
the 40 largest counties in the United States with estimates of	 
voting age populations for those jurisdictions.  GAO found that  
none of the counties have voter registration numbers that exceed 
the number of eligible voting age residents.			 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-01-560R					        
    ACCNO:   A00688						        
    TITLE:   Comparison of Voting Age Population to Registered Voters 
             in the 40 Largest U.S. Counties                                  
     DATE:   03/23/2001 
  SUBJECT:   Local governments					 
	     Population statistics				 
	     Voting records					 
	     Comparative analysis				 

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GAO-01-560R

Voting Age Populations United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

March 23, 2001 The Honorable Christopher S. Bond United States Senate

Subject: Comparison of Voting Age Population to Registered Voters in the 40
Largest U. S. Counties

Earlier this month, you introduced S. 528, the “Safeguard the Vote
Act.” Section 3 of that legislation would require states and
localities to purge voter rolls if they discover that the number of
registered voters exceeds the number of eligible voting age residents. You
asked us to compare data on the number of registered voters for the largest
counties in the United States with estimates of voting age populations for
those jurisdictions.

The enclosed table provides the data for the 40 largest counties. As you
will see, none of the counties have voter registration numbers that exceed
the number of eligible voting age residents.

To determine the largest U. S. counties and their voting age populations, we
used 1998 population estimates from the Census Bureau– based on the
1990 census– to estimate voting age populations (“ 1990 to 1999
Annual Time Series of County Population Estimates by Selected Age
Groups”). To estimate voting age population, we subtracted the
estimate of population 17 years and younger from the total population
estimate for each county. We obtained the number of registered voters for
these counties from Election Data Services (EDS), a political consulting
firm specializing in election administration and the analysis and
presentation of census and political data. EDS obtained these data directly
from the counties. For Milwaukee County, EDS did not have data, so we
obtained the number of registered voters from the Wisconsin State Board of
Elections. The latest comparable data sets are for 1998; although the Census
Bureau has population data based on the 2000 census, EDS had not made its
data on the numbers of registered voters for the 2000 election available
when we did this analysis.

If you have any questions about this analysis, please call me on (202) 512-
9110. Wendy Ahmed was responsible for the data gathering and analysis for
this report. David Alexander and Kristeen McLain supported the effort.

GAO- 01- 560R Voting Age Populations Page 2 We are sending copies of this
letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, Chairman, and

Senator Christopher Dodd, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration, and to other interested Members and committees. This letter
will also be available on GAO's home page at http: www. gao. gov.

Sincerely yours, Norman Rabkin Managing Director Tax Administration and
Justice

Enclosure

Enclosure Enclosure

GAO- 01- 560R Voting Age Populations Page 3

Total Voting Age Population and Registered Voters for 40 Largest Counties
County

Voting age population for

1998 Number of

registered voters in 1998 Percent

Los Angeles County, CA 6,702,638 3, 854, 817 58% Cook County, IL 3,843,111
2, 625, 022 68 Harris County, TX 2,283,210 1, 755, 809 77 San Diego County,
CA 2,046,497 1, 324, 482 65 Orange County, CA 2,021,616 1, 173, 732 58
Maricopa County, AZ 2,020,424 1, 345, 370 67 Kings County, NY 1,644,730 1,
207, 419 73 Miami- Dade County, FL 1,614,738 832,234 52 Wayne County, MI
1,553,202 1, 370, 052 88 Queens County, NY 1,548,372 978,557 63 Dallas
County, TX 1,491,866 1, 146, 673 77 King County, WA 1,283,041 1, 005, 074 78
New York County, NY 1,263,481 998,105 79 Santa Clara County, CA 1,233,716
726,410 59 Broward County, FL 1,163,334 817,403 70 Middlesex County, MA
1,113,607 865,056 78 San Bernardino County, CA 1,104,128 664,022 60
Philadelphia County, PA 1,068,992 960,206 90 Cuyahoga County, OH 1,051,442
889,418 85 Alameda County, CA 1,050,893 714,134 68 Riverside County, CA
1,034,075 597,078 58 Suffolk County, NY 1,023,532 826,659 81 Nassau County,
NY 1,010,072 867,606 86 Allegheny County, PA 996,674 861,511 86 Tarrant
County, TX 981,487 814,547 83 Bexar County, TX 954,901 818,370 86 Oakland
County, MI 891,354 867,144 97 Clark County, NV 850,922 562,557 66 Sacramento
County, CA 846,787 600,499 71 Bronx County, NY 839,530 640,279 76 Palm Beach
County, FL 814,685 613,058 75 Hennepin County, MN 811,258 709,455 87
Franklin County, OH 770,672 657,232 85 St. Louis County, MO 756,207 704,907
93 Erie County, NY 711,056 600,958 85 Fairfax County, VA 703,252 531,456 76
Westchester County, NY 697,449 529,967 76 Hillsborough County, FL 685,215
463,972 68 Contra Costa County, CA 683,040 485,910 71 Milwaukee County, WI
676,857 605,653 89

Source: GAO compilation of data from Election Data Services and the U. S.
Census Bureau.

(440038)
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