Consider the importance of age of US voters as a factor influencing voting behaviour

Age is a primacy social factor that influences how a voter casts their vote. One way age is a factor is that there is a trend showing that younger voters are more likely to vote Democrat and older voters are more likely to vote Republican. This was significant in the 2012 presidential election which showed that 60% of 18-29 year olds voted for Obama compared to just 37% for Romney, and 44% of over 65s voted for Obama in contrast the larger 56% who voted for Romney. This is arguably because younger voters are more likely to be socially liberal e.g. pro-choice on abortion, supporting gay marriage, etc whereas older voters are often more concerned with issues of health care, retirement provisions and have a partisan alignment with the Republicans. Middle-aged voters are more concerned with fiscal issues. In the 2012 election, Obama gained more votes from those under the age 0f 45 however Romney won more votes from those over the age of 45. Thus, age is an important factor in influencing support for either Republicans or Democrats in regard to what policies they advocate.

Furthermore, ages is also a factor in influencing voting behaviour is regard to a differential turnout in the two age groups with older voters being much more likely to turn out and vote and younger voters to abstain. This was demonstrated in 2012 where only 45% of those aged 18-29 voted in contrast to 66% of over 30s who did vote. This can lead to more attention being paid to older rather than younger voters as they make up a large proportion of the electorate and are therefore more likely to vote. There is a similar trend in the UK in regards to this differential turnout. Overall, age is an important long-term factor however; it is one factor of many that influence voting behaviour thus cannot be assumed as a single cause for voting behaviour