Though Americans are still awaiting Presidential Election results, there is some news that the voting data has revealed: this election marked the highest voter turnout in the U.S. since 1900.
According to the U.S. Elections Project, which is run by a University of Florida professor, 158,857,000 votes have been cast thus far (of course, ballots are still being counted so that number will only go up). In 2016, that number was 138,846,571.
The percentage of turnout equates to about 66.4% of eligible voters. The turnout rate in 2016 was 60.1%.
According to the professor, Michael McDonald, the highest turnout rate in U.S. history was 73.7% in the year 1900.
I posted PRELIMINARY estimates of the 2020 state and national turnout and voting-eligible population turnout rates
160 million people voted
Turnout rate: 66.9%
Highest turnout rate since 1900: 73.7%https://t.co/k7y6bGRInG
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) November 4, 2020
Though some argued that those years weren’t quite comparable, as it was before women could vote and at a time when African American votes were severely suppressed, he said:
“Look, folks arguing the franchise was limited in the 1800’s. I get your argument and am very sympathetic to it, but it isn’t a good explanation for turnout rate differences. Today, women have higher turnout rates than men; African-Americans have slightly lower rates than Whites.”
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