More men or women? Democrats or Republicans? A look at RI voters heading into Election Day

Who's more popular, Dan or Ashley?

Rhode Island voters will decide in a meaningful way on Tuesday, when incumbent Gov. Dan McKee faces political newcomer Ashley Kalus in the general election for governor.

But, in the more light-hearted contest of who has the most popular name, it's Dan hands down.

Well, sort of. But, more about that later.

The Providence Journal analyzed the secretary of state's voter registration database, examining the popularity of the names of several candidates, but also taking a more serious look at who's eligible to vote in Tuesday's election.

In total, 815,240 people are listed in the state's public voter registration database. (Another 13 people were allowed to register privately after courts found they could be targets of violence if their addresses were known.)

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How old are RI voters?

The average voter is 49.65 years old. This calculated is by taking the arithmetic mean each of the 815,240 voters' ages in whole years.

Congressional District 2, where state General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, a Democrat, is facing former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, a Republican, in a competitive race, is the slightly older of the state's two congressional districts, with an average age of 49.89.

Congressional District 1, where incumbent Democrat David Cicilline faces Republican Allen Waters, has an average age of 49.40.

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Oldest, youngest voters?

Nine registered voters are also celebrating their 18th birthday on Tuesday, making them the youngest voters in the state. They each come from different communities, but six of them live in Congressional District 2.

It's not possible to say how old the oldest voter is because obvious birth date data entry errors have inflated the ages of a handful of voters, making some appear more than 200 years old. There are so few such errors that it doesn't skew the overall average age significantly.

A total of 13,966 eligible voters will be in their teens on election day, the smallest of any "decade group." And that's not just because there are only two years worth of teenagers eligible to vote. Even if that were adjusted by multiplying it by five to compensate, the resulting 69,830 would still be one of the smallest groups, with people in their 70s, 87,466, and people in their 80s, 35,788.

People who are 90 and older, which includes the erroneous birth dates and spans more than 10 years, number 11,677.

The largest age group is people in their 30s, with 151,785.

The remaining groups are: 20s, 126,103; 40s, 119,678; 50s, 133,340; and 60s, 135,433.

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Oldest, youngest communities?

The community with the oldest average voters, at 56.5 years old, is the state's smallest. New Shoreham, the town on Block Island.

Other older communities include Jamestown, 55.2; Little Compton, 54.8; and Charlestown, 53.9.

And the youngest, at 44.8, is the largest, Providence.

Other younger communities include Central Falls, 45.6; Pawtucket, 47.5; and Woonsocket, 48.0.

Is RI really a Democratic state?

That's hard to say.

It's true that there are more Democrats than Republicans, by 343,22 to 113,345.

But there are more unaffiliated voters, 358,673, than Democrats.

In 28 of the state's 39 cities and towns, unaffiliated voters are the largest single bloc, while Democrats are the largest in the other 11. Republicans aren't the largest block in any city or town.

Unaffiliated voters are the majority — meaning more than 50% — in 12 communities. Democrats hold majorities in four communities, Pawtucket, North Providence, Central Falls and Providence.

Providence is 61.2% Democrats, which trumps the largest unaffiliated majority, 55.7% in Glocester.

Although Republicans have no majorities and are not the largest bloc anyway, they do outnumber Democrat in two places: Foster, which is 24.3% Republican to 21.8% Democratic, and Scituate, which is 23.7% Republican to 21.5% Democratic.

There are more Democrats in Providence alone than there are Republicans in the 6 most-Republican communities combined.

Men vs. women

Voter registration records are not a reliable source to determine the breakdown between male voters and female voters because more than a quarter of the records — 26.9% — don't have any information on gender.

That ranges from nearly half — 45.6% in Little Compton, which could claim to be the most non-binary town in the state, to about an eighth — 12.7% — in Cranston, where seven out of eight people are marked as male or female.

With those limitations, voters described as female outnumber those described as male statewide and in every city and town, except New Shoreham, where 395 voters are marked as male and 373 as female. Still, the 612 with no information covers the difference many times over.

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'Dan' vs. 'Ashley'

Back to the name popularity contest, The Journal found that, straight up, there are more voters named Ashley, 1,193, than those named Dan, 29.

But, when you figure in name variations, the outcome is much different.

Rhode Island voters spell Ashley 13 different ways — really! — and doesn't even count compound names, such as Ashley Ann and Ashley Marie. Throw all those in, and there are a total of 2,691 Rhode Island voters who call themselves Ashley in one fashion or another.

But don't forget the Dannys and Daniels — Dan is the least popular variant of that name on documents as formal as voter registrations. Counting them all together yields 5,834 Dans.

If there were a tug-of-war at the McKee and Kalus family picnics, it would be a laugher — 60 McKees are registered to vote, but only two voters are named Kalus.

'Allan' vs. 'Seth'

In Congressional District 2, the other marquee race Tuesday, where state General Treasurer Seth Magaziner faces former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung for the seat now held by the retiring Jim Langevin, name popularity is no contest. Including variants, 406 Seths are up against 1,596 Allans.

And Fung — with 10 voters sharing that last name — is more popular than Magaziner, which has four registered voters.

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Here's a look at Rhode Island's voters heading into Tuesday's election