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Tyler_Zoro OP t1_jahjxm8 wrote

Reply to comment by PredictorX1 in [OC] Self-Identified Party Affiliation in the US, 2004-2023 (Gallup source in comments) by Tyler_Zoro

Gathering data on party affiliation is hard work. Anything beyond the surface level (and to some extent even that) is fraught with all sorts of skewed reporting and biases, plus it's insanely expensive to gather comprehensive data.

Of course, how people actually vote isn't data that anyone gets, so to some extent, it's all guesswork.

The chart I've produced here is mainly intended to highlight the fact that there is a large and growing group who no longer publicly associate themselves with the two major political parties, and that at this point they are the largest demographic (they were a minority demographic in 2004).

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PredictorX1 t1_jahkhid wrote

You make very good points, and I appreciate your work on this. Still, I think it's worth at least pointing out the subtlety of the "independents".

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Tyler_Zoro OP t1_jahmote wrote

Of course. It's a self-identification only and should not be read as meaning more than "they didn't want to identify as a specific party." The change in that over time is what's interesting.

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