47%: Who Are They, and Does It Matter?

We're now a couple days into the discussion about Mitt Romney's comments about the 47% of Americans that do not pay income tax. Since I do not wish to mince words, here is his statement:

'All right, there are 47% who are with him; who are dependent upon government; who believe that they are victims; who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them; who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing — to you-name-it.'

Context.

The left hopes that this is a gaffe-to-end-all-gaffes. Romneyland is a place of gloom. The right, would prefer a different choice of words but doesn't entirely reject his premise. So what does it mean? As a colleague says, it's no fun to be a political science wet blanket, but I'd like to see the polling data a few weeks out before we call this a decisive blow in the election. Today, I'd like to share some figures I'll be putting up for discussion with my US Elections section to make a point about a group of voters that is worth highlighting.  On to the graphs! 

First, from Business Insider, where do the non-Income Tax payers live?

Next, let's look at the ages of Non-Taxpayers, from The Hamilton Project (h/t: Ezra Klein): 

And lest we forget, here's the turnout of voters by age in 2000 and 2004 (h/t: Political Arithmetik): 

And finally, for your sake, I'll overlay the second graph over the first one, so we can identify a potential population of people that do not pay taxes, but do vote. 

As we can see there is a gap between seniors that do no pay income OR payroll taxes, but DO vote in presidential elections - and this is a potential problem for Romney (especially if you think back to the map earlier - hint: FLORIDA!). However, there's an equally strong argument that it is not a problem for him since these senior citizens have probably a hardened partisan identification from years of voting. Also, seniors presumably have years of paying taxes - and could share Romney's view on the tax burden and dependence on government. Check back for me, as I presume this will be a major narrative until the debates.