Income distribution of the white vote

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've looked for that in a few exit poll, but couldn't find data that crossed race and income data. I would be interested if someone had it, because I'm curious to see if the stark income stratification observed in the past elections is mostly explained by the vote of minorities (since they are overwhelmingly less affluent than whites on average) or if there was a real class factor even among whites.

For reference, here's the income data among the general electorate (I crossed the data from the NYT and CNN, which apparently used the same exit poll):

Under $30,000: O 63 / R 35 (20%)
$30,000-50,000: O 57 / R 42 (21%)
$50,000-100,000: O 46 / R 52 (31%)
Over $100,000: O 44 / R 54 (28%)

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well?

[Antonio the Sixth]

The (comparatively) lilywhite states would be a good starting point. If the factor disappears there, then... but IIRC it doesn't.

But bear in mind that income and class are not identical. College students, unless their parents are really super duper hyper rich, tend to live in relative penury (and collect a lot of nontangible benefits from school and from home that aren't going to show up in an income question, making them appear poorer than they are.) And we know how they vote.

Of course, class in itself is almost impossible to identify in a society like America (which doesn't mean that it doesn't exist).

Another method could be to identify how the minority electorate breaks down in terms of income (ie which percentage is under 30k, which 30-50k, etc.), then infer a uniform vote regardless of income (a debatable premise, but probably not too far from reality) and make some math. I know that this kind of statistical tricks made on already dubious data can get pretty silly, but better than nothing.

[Antonio the Sixth]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/154883/professionals-pick-obama-execs-business-owners-romney.aspx
This probably the best survey for determining how different social classes vote in US. Unfortunately it's Gallup, so it's inaccurate to a certain degree.

That poll is B.S. Construction and manufacturing workers were handily for Obama.

Cool story bro.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Cool story bro.

Uh, the unions were for Obama.

I have a hard time imagining a bunch of guys in hardhats voting for Romney, of all people.

I've got news for you: something can be both extremely sad and absolutely true.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Whites Under $50,000 (25%): McCain 51% / Obama 47%
Whites Over $50,000 (49%): McCain 56% / Obama 43%

How can McCain win whites over 50k by 13 points if he won whites overall by 12? Anyway, pretty depressing numbers.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Very interesting stuff, thanks Progressive Realist. It seems the correlation between wealth and vote is slightly higher than it was in 2008 (which is understandable). The crossing of graduation and income data is also interesting (the "no HS degree" chart is pretty weird. The statistical significance of these subsamples might be pretty limited though...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Very interesting stuff, thanks Progressive Realist. It seems the correlation between wealth and vote is slightly higher than it was in 2008 (which is understandable). The crossing of graduation and income data is also interesting (the "no HS degree" chart is pretty weird. The statistical significance of these subsamples might be pretty limited though...

Do you mean income? Income and wealth, of course, are not the same.

Yeah, sorry. I don't know which of the two measures is the best to identify class, but I'd guess income is slightly better.