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When it comes to voting, more and more Americans are taking to the polls — even when the president’s job isn’t on the ballot.

According to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 96 million people voted in the 2006 congressional elections, an increase of 7 million compared to 2002.

The report, called Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2006 report was based on responses to a survey taken during the same election.

The report examined the levels of voting and registration, characteristics of citizens who either registered or voted, and the reasons why people who were registered didn’t vote.

“It’s a representative sample of the U.S.,” said Thom File, a voting analyst with the U.S. Census Bureau.

About 50,000 households nationwide were polled by the survey and it typically takes the census up to two years to put the report together.

About 48 percent of voting-age citizens cast a ballot in 2006, the highest since 1994 when the Census Bureau first began collecting the information.

However, the report only compares 2006 election data with information from previous congressional election years, not for the presidential election.

Among citizens of voting age, 68 percent were registered to vote in 2006, compared with 67 percent who were registered in 2002.

Overall, in the U.S. 136 million people were registered to vote in 2006, with non-Hispanic whites having the highest registration rate at 71 percent. Meanwhile, blacks had a 61 percent rate, Hispanics had a 54 percent rate and Asians had a 49 percent registration rate.

Of those, non-Hispanic white citizens had the highest level of voter turnout in the November 2006 election at 52 percent, followed by black citizens at 41 percent, and both Hispanics and Asians at 32 percent.

In the battle of the sexes, 69 percent of women and 66 percent of men registered to vote in the 2006 congressional elections. Women also were more likely to vote than men; 49 percent compared with 47 percent.

When age was considered, the report showed that in 2006, 22 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted compared with 63 percent of people 55 and older.

And even though 18- to 24-year-olds had the lowest voting and registration rates, 22 percent and 46 percent, respectively, they increased their registration and voting rates by roughly 3 percentage points between the 2002 and 2006 elections.

Among those who didn’t vote, about 40 percent cited conflicting schedules or illness as reasons, while 20 percent were either not interested in voting or didn’t like the candidates. Other reasons cited for not voting included being out of town, forgetting to vote, registration problems, inconvenient polling locations, transportation issues and bad weather.

Lee County Supervisor of Elections Sharon Harrington said Tuesday that the census numbers weren’t surprising. The report gives a good snapshot of voters in America, Harrington said.

“I think that it’s a very comprehensive report,” Harrington said. “It breaks it down into all kinds of classifications.”

Harrington added that the increasing voter numbers have been a trend since 2000.

Dave Carpenter, qualifying officer for the Collier County Supervisor of Elections office, agreed with Harrington.

Carpenter added that the breakdown certainly was worth examining and that voter registration is expected to go up again this year due to the presidential election in November.

Voting and registration rates are historically lower in years with congressional elections than in presidential election years.

For more information about the census report visit www.census.gov.