# Does the Daily Show discourage voting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2006, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951 "2006-11-03T08:55:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/21 "2006-11-07T20:30:20Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] I would strongly suspect that a regular Daily Show view is much more likely to vote than the average American. [/QUOTE] I suspect that you’d be wrong. The average Daily Show viewer is 18-30 years old, a demographic group that traditionally has a very _low_ voter turnout. I’d be willing to believe that the average Daily Show viewer is more likely to vote than others in his general age/sex/regligious demographic, but still less likely to vote than the average American. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/22 "2006-11-07T20:52:47Z")
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=] I suspect that you’d be wrong. The average Daily Show viewer is 18-30 years old, a demographic group that traditionally has a very _low_ voter turnout. [/QUOTE] The average Daily Show viewer is older than 30. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/23 "2006-11-07T21:01:25Z")
I thought my cite was in this thread. :smack: [Here it is.](http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/09-30-2004/0002262661&EDATE=) > [@](#): > > National Annenberg Election Survey Concludes That ‘Daily Show’ Viewers Are More Educated and More Interested in the Presidential Campaign Than The Average American and Have Higher Campaign Knowledge Than National News Viewers and Newspaper Readers > > … > > - The median age of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” 11:00 p.m. (premiere) airing is 35, while its median income is $67,000. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/24 "2006-11-07T22:15:49Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] The average Daily Show viewer is older than 30. [/QUOTE] My bad. I’m not sure where I got the idea that the Daily Show audience was primarily 20-somethings. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/25 "2006-11-07T22:50:37Z")
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=] My bad. I’m not sure where I got the idea that the Daily Show audience was primarily 20-somethings. [/QUOTE] It’s an understandable thing to assume or guess. The biggest Daily Show fans I knew were in college - the thing is, we’re still watching now that we’ve graduated. I’m trying to find some definitive numbers, but in 2004, the turnout for eligible voters under 25 was less than half, and about two-thirds of the 25-plus crowd voted. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951/26 "2006-11-08T04:03:54Z")
[Link](http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/Release_Turnout2004.pdf) There’s a .pdf concerning voter turnout of the under 30 crowd. It doesn’t break it down into smaller groups than 18-29; I’d be surprised if the 25+ crowd’s turnout was 66% (or two-thirds.) The turn-out for the entire voting eligible population was around 60%; 55% for the voting age population. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-daily-show-discourage-voting/378951.md?page=1)