How does Idaho's voter demographics compare to neighboring states?

1. Idaho is solidly Republican in registration and recent trends

The Idaho Secretary of State’s published data and contemporary reporting show a dominant Republican registration advantage: reporting in October 2024 summarized that roughly 59% of registered voters in Idaho were Republicans, with 26% unaffiliated and 13% Democrats ^[1]. Local reporting using voter‑registration traces also documents incoming migrants from states such as California who, at least among registered voters recorded in Idaho files, have been disproportionately Republican — the Idaho Secretary of State’s analysis found that 75% of the nearly 39,600 former‑California registrants in Idaho were registered Republican ^[3].

2. Idaho’s electorate is predominantly white — mirrors many Mountain West states

Analyses that draw on the U.S. Census American Community Survey note Idaho’s voting‑eligible population is predominantly white; Stacker’s overview of state voter demographics used 2019 ACS data to show Idaho’s electorate is largely white, a pattern that is comparable to neighboring Mountain West states highlighted in that package ^[2]. The specific racial/ethnic percentages for each neighboring state are not supplied in the current sources, so a precise comparative table cannot be produced from the provided material ^[2].

3. Age and turnout patterns: younger registrations rising but older cohorts remain influential

Stacker’s and Idaho sources point to age splits in Idaho’s electorate — for example, the 2016 profile showed a near tie between 18–44 and 45–65 voter cohorts — and more recent reporting highlights spikes in registrations among Idahoans under 30 ^{[2] [1]}. These trends — younger cohorts registering in larger numbers while older voters remain a significant force — are a common story across many states, but the supplied results do not contain direct age‑comparisons with each neighboring state ^{[2] [1]}.

4. Neighboring states: general context reported, not exhaustive comparisons

The Stacker package and local reprints provide snapshots of neighboring states’ electorates (e.g., notes on Washington’s large voting population and that Wyoming is very white and reliably Republican), but the current sources do not present a systematic, numeric demographic comparison of Idaho versus each neighbor ^[2]. For instance, Stacker comments qualitatively on Washington’s large electorate and partisan competitiveness and on Wyoming’s small, majority‑white, consistently Republican electorate, but exact cross‑state percentages and registration mixes for Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Washington are not included in the provided set ^[2].

5. Data sources, limits, and what’s missing from current reporting

Authoritative primary sources cited here include Idaho’s VoteIdaho data dashboards and voter‑registration totals from the Secretary of State, plus secondary summaries from Stacker and local outlets; these are good for Idaho’s internal registration, turnout history, and some migration patterns ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [2] [3]}. However, the supplied materials explicitly note that the Secretary of State does not collect race or ethnicity on the voter registration form, which constrains some demographic claims, and the current sources do not include a side‑by‑side numeric comparison for each neighboring state ^[1]. That means precise comparative percentages (race, age, party registration) for Idaho vs. each neighbor are not available in the documents you provided ^{[1] [2]}.

6. Competing interpretations and potential biases in the available reporting

Idaho’s Secretary of State staff framed publication of migration and registration data as a way to counter “misinformation” about newcomers’ politics; the agency’s visualization shows many migrants from California are registered Republican, which local outlets like Idaho Statesman and Idaho Capital Sun emphasize ^{[3] [1]}. Critics or other commentators (not present in the supplied sources) sometimes argue migration effects are more mixed; because those dissenting views do not appear in the current reporting, they cannot be fully summarized here. Readers should note that analyses based solely on registration snapshots capture declared party, not voting behavior, and that different outlets may have implicit agendas — for example, Stacker’s national slide deck aims to summarize ACS data across states, while local outlets focus on state political implications ^{[2] [3]}.

If you want a detailed numeric comparison (race, age, party registration, turnout) between Idaho and each neighboring state (Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming), I can pull those metrics — but I’ll need sources that contain those state‑by‑state figures (not found in the current reporting).