Study: Financially insecure people less likely to vote

The less financially secure you are the less likely you are to vote.

That’s the finding from a new study from the Pew Research Center.

Rather than relying on income, Pew ranked people by their financial security. It used a 10-point scale that included things like whether they had money saved for retirement or trouble paying their bills.

The most financially secure people backed Republicans over Democrats and were three times as likely to vote as the least secure. Democrats do not gain support as people become less financially secure, but Republicans lose the backing of those voters.

The report concludes that the apathy among the insecure is part of the reason Democrats suffered historic losses in November’s election.

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Study: Financially insecure people less likely to vote."