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0.4.1 Share of Population Eligible to Vote Who Are Registered Voters
Why is this important?
A universally recognized sign of a society's civic health is its willingness to elect its own leaders. Voting is a core function of citizenship.
A low rate of voter registration may reflect many phenomena: apathy among residents toward public policy issues, widespread dissatisfaction with the political process and its players, and/or difficulties in registering to vote. A high rate of voter registration is usually viewed as a sign of an engaged community. However, a large number of registered voters does not necessarily lead to a high voter turn-out in every election.
Population estimates are from the Washington State Office of Financial Management. These estimates count all residents regardless of citizenship status. For this indicator, only residents ages 18+ (voter-eligible ages) are included. Registered voter numbers are actual counts, not estimates. The share is the number of registered voters divided by the eligible population.
For these reasons, areas with significant shares of non-citizen residents will often show lower voter participation rates than areas with lower shares of non-citizen residents.
This indicator measures the share of the voter-eligible population in Walla Walla County who are registered to vote both with and without the penitentiary population included. Washington State is offered as a benchmark.
Where are we?
During 2024, the share of eligible voters who were registered to vote in:
- Walla Walla County (including the penitentiary population) was 86.8%, increasing from 67.9% in 1993.
- Walla Walla County (without the penitentiary population) was 83.1%, increasing from 67.5% in 2007.
- Washington State was 80.3%, staying the same from 72.0% in 1993.
Data Sources
