How Did Gay, Lesbian, And Bisexual People Vote?

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans voted as much – or as little – as everyone else. Here’s what the exit polling shows.

Sadly, only about one-third of eligible voters participated in yesterday’s midterm election (even the President mentioned it), and Pew reports that those who voted were much older than previous elections, which likely partially explains the massive Republican wins.

CNN has just published an updated, extensive set of exit polling data, and it turns out that lesbian gay, and bisexual people voted as much as everyone.

According to the Williams Institute, 3.5 percent of American adults are (publicly) gay, lesbian, or bisexual. And gay, lesbian, and bisexual people made up just 4 percent of voters yesterday.

But unlike in 2012, where one-third of LGBT voters pulled the lever for Republicans, just 24 percent did yesterday – a substantial shift for the Democratic Party, especially when there were more LGBT Republicans on the ballot than ever before.

Clearly, those who voted in Tuesday’s midterm elections were older and more conservative than the general electorate, and they made their voices heard. Conservatives (37%) far outnumbered liberals (23%) on Election Day:

A few other stats via CNN:

Ebola was effectively on the ballot, a win for the GOP, thanks to Fox News:

 So was terrorism:

 Hillary Clinton would lose to a generic Republican:

Same-sex marriage did not get majority support but split evenly:

One-third of voters showed up to vote against Pres. Obama:

 

Image, top, via Flickr