Nearly half of the nation's office furniture production is located in western Michigan, and agriculture remains an important part of the economy. The unemployment rate in September was 3.7 percent, below the national average for nearly five years. In 1998, Michigan's population grew 5.6 percent from 1990 to 1998, reaching 9.8 million. While 7.3 million of those people are of voting age, a recent poll published by the Detroit Free Press showed that 75 percent of seniors in Michigan say they plan to vote, compared to only 13 percent of residents ages 18 to 24. Most Michigan candidates have capitalized on this disparity and focused their campaigns on issues important to seniors, like Medicare and Social Security.
Race appears to matter in voting trends too.
Approximately 83.5 percent of Michigan's population is white, while 13.9 percent are black and 1.1 percent Asian. Michigan voters do not register for a political party, but historically Detroit and union members voted for Democrats while the rest of the state and top-level management went to the Republicans. The division is no longer as clear. Detroit is no longer an all-blue collar town, and has more Republican voters and Democrats have a firm hold on most of the suburbs. As the statistics might suggest, Michigan voters are almost evenly split in this year's presidential race.