How Many Registered Voters Vote For President In The Us

Attribute of election history

The historical trends in voter turnout in the United states presidential elections take been determined by the gradual expansion of voting rights from the initial restriction to white male person property owners anile 21 or older in the early years of the country's independence to all citizens aged eighteen or older in the mid-20th century. Voter turnout in United States presidential elections has historically been higher than the turnout for midterm elections.^[ane]

Approximately 240 million people were eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election and roughly 66.i% of them submitted ballots, totaling about 158 one thousand thousand. Biden received nigh 81 million votes, Trump nearly 74 million votes, and other candidates (including Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins) a combined approximately 3 million votes.

History of voter turnout [edit]

U.Due south. presidential election popular vote totals every bit a percentage of the total U.S. population. The black line is the total turnout, while colored lines reflect votes for major parties. This nautical chart represents the number of votes bandage as a percentage of the total population, and does not compare either of those quantities with the per centum of the population that was eligible to vote.^[3]

Early 19th century: Universal white male suffrage [edit]

The gradual expansion of the correct to vote from only belongings-owning men to include all white men over 21 was an of import motion in the catamenia from 1800 to 1830.^[4] Older states with belongings restrictions dropped them, namely all just Rhode Isle, Virginia and Northward Carolina by the mid-1820s. No new states had property qualifications, although three had adopted revenue enhancement-paying qualifications – Ohio, Louisiana and Mississippi, of which only in Louisiana were these significant and long-lasting.^[five] The process was peaceful and widely supported, except in Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the need for equal suffrage was broad and strong, although the subsequent reform included a pregnant belongings requirement for whatsoever resident born outside of the United States. All the same, free black men lost voting rights in several states during this period.^[6]

The fact that a man was now legally allowed to vote did not necessarily mean he routinely voted. He had to exist pulled to the polls, which became the most important role of the local parties. These parties systematically sought out potential voters and brought them to the polls. Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of the developed male person population in the 1840 presidential election.^[7] Tax-paying qualifications remained in only five states by 1860 – Massachusetts, Rhode Isle, Pennsylvania, Delaware and N Carolina.^[8]

Another innovative strategy for increasing voter participation and input followed. Prior to the presidential ballot of 1832, the Anti-Masonic Political party conducted the nation'southward start presidential nominating convention. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, September 26–28, 1831, it transformed the process by which political parties select their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.^[ix]

1870s: African American male person suffrage [edit]

The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870 gave African American men the right to vote. While this historic expansion of rights resulted in significant increases in the eligible voting population and may have contributed to the increases in the proportion of votes cast for president as a percentage of the total population during the 1870s, there does not seem to have been a pregnant long-term increase in the percentage of eligible voters who turn out for the poll. The disenfranchisement of most African Americans and many poor whites in the South during the years 1890–1910 likely contributed to the turn down in overall voter turnout percentages during those years visible in the chart below.

Early 1920s: Women's suffrage [edit]

There was no systematic drove of voter turnout data past gender at a national level earlier 1964, but smaller local studies bespeak a low turnout amongst female voters in the years post-obit Women's suffrage in the The states. For example, a 1924 study of voter turnout in Chicago found that "female Chicagoans were far less likely to have visited the polls on Election Mean solar day than were men in both the 1920 presidential election (46% vs. 75%) and the 1923 mayoral contest (35% vs. 63%)."^[x] The study compared reasons given past male and female non-voters and establish that female non-voters were more than probable to cite general indifference to politics and ignorance or timidity regarding elections than male non-voters, and that female person voter were less likely to cite fright of loss of business or wages. Most significantly, however, xi% of female non-voters in the survey cited a "Disbelief in woman's voting" as the reason they did not vote.

The graph of voter turnout percentages shows a dramatic decline in turnout over the kickoff two decades of the twentieth century, ending in 1920 when the Nineteenth Subpoena to the U.s.a. Constitution granted women the right to vote across the United states. But in the preceding decades, several states had passed laws supporting women'due south suffrage. Women were granted the right to vote in Wyoming in 1869, earlier the territory had become a full state in the matrimony. In 1889, when the Wyoming constitution was drafted in preparation for statehood, information technology included women'south suffrage. Thus Wyoming was also the kickoff full state to grant women the right to vote. In 1893, Colorado was the showtime country to ameliorate an existing constitution in order to grant women the right to vote, and several other states followed, including Utah and Idaho in 1896, Washington State in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Alaska and Illinois in 1913, Montana and Nevada in 1914, New York in 1917; Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma in 1918. Each of these suffrage laws expanded the body of eligible voters, and because women were less probable to vote than men, each of these expansions created a decline in voter turnout rates, culminating with the extremely low turnouts in the 1920 and 1924 elections after the passage of the Nineteenth Subpoena.

This voting gender gap waned throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century.

Age, pedagogy, and income [edit]

Voter turnout by sex and age for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.

Age, income, and educational attainment are significant factors affecting voter turnout. Educational attainment is perhaps the best predictor of voter turnout, and in the 2008 election, those holding advanced degrees were three times more than probable to vote than those with less than high school education. Income correlated well with the likelihood of voting as well. The income correlation may be because of a correlation between income and educational attainment, rather than a direct effect of income.^{[ citation needed ]}

Age [edit]

The age departure is associated with youth voter turnout. Some argue that "age is an important factor in understanding voting blocs and differences" on various issues.^[eleven] Others argue that young people are typically "plagued" past political apathy and thus practice not take potent political opinions.^[12] Every bit strong political opinions may exist considered one of the reasons behind voting,^[13] political aloofness among young people is arguably a predictor for low voter turnout. One report institute that potential young voters are more willing to commit to voting when they meet pictures of younger candidates running for elections/part or voting for other candidates, surmising that young Americans are "voting at higher and similar rates to other Americans when there is a candidate under the historic period of 35 years running".^[14] As such, since most candidates running for office are pervasively over the age of 35 years,^[15] youth may non be actively voting in these elections considering of a lack of representation or visibility in the political process.

Recent decades have seen increasing business concern over the fact that youth voter turnout is consistently lower than turnout among older generations. Several programs to increase the rates of voting among young people – such as MTV'due south "Rock the Vote" (founded in 1990) and the "Vote or Die" initiative (starting in 2004) – may have marginally increased turnouts of those between the ages of 18 and 25 to vote. However, the Stanford Social Innovation Review found no testify of a decline in youth voter turnout. In fact, they argue that "Millennials are turning out at similar rates to the previous two generations when they face up their beginning elections."^[16]

Education [edit]

Rates in voting in the 2008 U.Due south. Presidential Election by educational attainment

Education is some other factor considered to have a major bear on on voter turnout rates. A study by Burman investigated the relationship between formal education levels and voter turnout.^[17] This report demonstrated the issue of ascent enrollment in higher teaching circa 1980s, which resulted in an increase in voter turnout. Yet, "this was non true for political noesis";^[17] a rise in education levels did non have any impact in identifying those with political knowledge (a signifier of borough engagement) until the 1980s ballot, when higher educational activity became a distinguishing factor in identifying civic participation. This article poses a multifaceted perspective on the effect of pedagogy levels on voter turnout. Based on this article, 1 may surmise that teaching has become a more powerful predictor of civic participation, discriminating more than between voters and non-voters. However, this was not true for political noesis; education levels were not a signifier of political knowledge. Gallego (2010) also contends that voter turnout tends to be higher in localities where voting mechanisms have been established and are like shooting fish in a barrel to operate – i.due east. voter turnout and participation tends to be high in instances where registration has been initiated past the state and the number of electoral parties is small. One may contend that ease of admission – and non education level – may exist an indicator of voting behavior. Presumably larger, more than urban cities volition take greater budgets/resources/infrastructure defended to elections, which is why youth may accept college turnout rates in those cities versus more rural areas. Though youth in larger (read: urban) cities tend to exist more educated than those in rural areas (Marcus & Krupnick, 2017), mayhap there is an external variable (i.e. election infrastructure) at play. Smith and Tolbert'south (2005) research reiterates that the presence of ballot initiatives and portals inside a country have a positive consequence on voter turnout. Another correlated finding in his study (Snyder, 2011) was that education is less important as a predictor of voter turnout in states than tend to spend more on education. Moreover, Snyder'due south (2011) research suggests that students are more than likely to vote than not-students. It may be surmised that an increase of state investment in electoral infrastructure facilitates and education policy and programs results in increase voter turnout among youth.

Income [edit]

Rates of voting in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election by income

Wealthier people tend to vote at college rates. Harder and Krosnick (2008) contend that some of the reasons for this may be due to "differences in motivation or ability (sometimes both)" (Harder and Krosnick, 2008), or that less wealthy people have less energy, time, or resource to allot towards voting. Another potential reason may be that wealthier people believe that they have more at pale if they don't vote than those with less resource or income. Maslow'south hierarchy of needs might too assist explain this hypothesis from a psychological perspective. If those with low income are struggling to meet the basic survival needs of food, water, prophylactic, etc., they volition non be motivated enough to achieve the final stages of "Esteem" or "Self-actualization" needs (Maslow, 1943) – which consist of the desire for dignity, respect, prestige and realizing personal potential, respectively.

Gender gap [edit]

Since 1980, the voting gender gap has completely reversed, with a higher proportion of women voting than men in each of the last nine presidential elections. The Heart for American Women and Politics summarizes how this trend can be measured differently both in terms of proportion of voters to non-voters, and in terms of the bulk number of votes bandage. "In every presidential election since 1980, the proportion of eligible female adults who voted has exceeded the proportion of eligible male adults who voted [...]. In all presidential elections prior to 1980, the voter turnout charge per unit for women was lower than the rate for men. The number of female person voters has exceeded the number of male voters in every presidential election since 1964..."^[18] This gender gap has been a determining gene in several contempo presidential elections, as women take been consistently about 15% more likely to back up the candidate of the Democratic Party than the Republican candidate in each election since 1996.^[19]

Race and ethnicity [edit]

Voter turnout in the 2008 U.Southward. Presidential Election by race/ethnicity.

Race and ethnicity has had an effect on voter turnout in recent years, with data from contempo elections such every bit 2008 showing much lower turnout among people identifying as Hispanic or Asian ethnicity than other voters (see nautical chart to the right). 1 factor impacting voter turnout of African Americans is that, every bit of the 2000 election, 13% of African American males are reportedly ineligible to vote nationwide because of a prior felony conviction; in certain states – Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi – disenfranchisement rates for African American males in the 2000 election were around 30%.^[20]

Other eligibility factors [edit]

Another factor influencing statistics on voter turnout is the percentage of the land's voting-historic period population^{[ clarification needed ]} who are ineligible to vote due to non-citizen condition or prior felony convictions. In a 2001 article in the American Political Science Review, Michael P. McDonald and Samuel Popkin argued, that at to the lowest degree in the Usa, voter turnout since 1972 has non actually declined when calculated for those eligible to vote, what they term the voting-eligible population.^[21] ^{[ description needed ]} In 1972, noncitizens and ineligible felons (depending on state police force) constituted about 2% of the voting-historic period population. By 2004, ineligible voters constituted well-nigh ten%.^[22] Ineligible voters are not evenly distributed across the country, roughly 15% of California's voting-historic period population is ineligible to vote – which confounds comparisons of states.^[23]

Turnout statistics [edit]

The post-obit table shows the available data on turnout for the voting-age population (VAP) and voting-eligible population (VEP) since 1936.^[24]

Election	Voting-age Population (VAP)^[25]	Voting-eligible Population (VEP)^[25]	Turnout^[25]	% Turnout of VAP^[25] ^{[ clarification needed ]}	% Turnout of VEP^[25]
1932	75,768,000		39,817,000	52.half dozen%
1936	lxxx,174,000		45,647,000	56.ix%
1940	84,728,000		49,815,000	58.8%
1944	85,654,000		48,026,000	56.1%
1948	95,573,000		48,834,000	51.1%
1952	99,929,000		61,552,000	61.6%
1956	104,515,000		62,027,000	59.3%
1960	109,672,000		68,836,000	62.8%
1964	114,090,000		seventy,098,000	61.4%
1968	120,285,000		73,027,000	60.vii%
1972	140,777,000		77,625,000	55.1%
1976	152,308,000		81,603,000	53.vi%
1980	163,945,000	159,635,102	86,497,000	52.eight%	54.2%
1984	173,995,000	167,701,904	92,655,000	53.iii%	55.2%
1988	181,956,000	173,579,281	91,587,000	l.iii%	52.viii%
1992	189,493,000	179,655,523	104,600,000	55.ii%	58.two%
1996	196,789,000	186,347,044	96,390,000	49.0%	51.7%
2000	209,787,000	194,331,436	105,594,000	50.3%	54.3%
2004	219,553,000	203,483,455	122,349,000	55.seven%	60.i%
2008	229,945,000	213,313,508	131,407,000	57.one%	62.v%
2012	235,248,000	222,474,111	129,235,000	53.8%	58.0%
2016	249,422,000	230,931,921	136,669,276	54.8%	59.2%
2020^[23]	257,605,088	239,247,182	159,690,457	62.0%	66.ix%

Note: The Bipartisan Policy Center has stated that turnout for 2012 was 57.5 percent of the voting-age population (VAP),^{[ clarification needed ]} which they claim was a reject from 2008. They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 lx.iv%; 2008 62.iii%; and 2012 57.5%.^[26]

The BPC 2012 vote count is low because their document was written just after the 2012 election, before concluding counts were in. Their voting-eligible population (VEP)^{[ clarification needed ]} does non include adjustments for felons (see p.13). The United states of america Elections Project, by Michael McDonald calculates VEP including citizenship and adjustments for felons. The site's data on turnout every bit percentage of eligible voters (VEP), is slightly higher and like to BPC: 2000 55.3%, 2004 sixty.7%, 2008 62.2%, 2012 58.6%. McDonald's voter turnout data for 2016 is lx.1% and fifty% for 2018.^[27]

Later analysis by the University of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Projection found that there were 235,248,000 people of voting historic period in the United States in the 2012 election, resulting in 2012 voting historic period population (VAP) turnout of 54.nine%.^[28] The total increment in VAP between 2008 and 2012 (v,300,000) was the smallest increase since 1964, bucking the modern average of viii,000,000–thirteen,000,000 per bicycle.

Run across besides [edit]

Voter turnout
Voter registration in the United States

References [edit]

^ New York Times Editorial Board (November 11, 2014). "Stance | The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved Jan 29, 2018.
^ "Voter Turnout By Land 2021". worldpopulationreview.com . Retrieved July 27, 2021.
^ See "National Turnout Rates, 1787-2018" (United States Election Project)
^ Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Commonwealth in the U.s. (2009) ch 2
^ Engerman, pp. 8–9
^ Murrin, John Thousand.; Johnson, Paul Due east.; McPherson, James M.; Fahs, Alice; Gerstle, Gary (2012). Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People (6th ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. p. 296. ISBN978-0-495-90499-one.
^ William M. Shade, "The 2nd Party System". in Paul Kleppner, et al. Evolution of American Balloter Systems (1983) pp. 77–111
^ Engerman, p. 35. Table 1
^ William Preston Vaughn, The Anti-Masonic Political party in the United states: 1826–1843 (2009)
^ Allen, Jodie T. (March xviii, 2009). "Reluctant Suffragettes: When Women Questioned Their Right to Vote". Pew Research Center . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Berman; Johnson (2000). "Age, ambition, and the local charter: a study in voting behavior".
^ Catapano, Tyler (2014). "?".
^ Munsey (2008). "Why We Wrote: Why exercise we vote?". APA Monitor. 39 (six): 60.
^ Pomante; Schraufnagel (2014). "Candidate Age and Youth Voter Turnout". American Politics Inquiry. 43 (3): 479–503. doi:10.1177/1532673x14554829. S2CID 156019567.
^ Struyk (2017). "The Democratic Political party has an historic period trouble". CNN.
^ Kiesa, Abby; Levine, Peter (March 21, 2016). "Practice We Actually Want Higher Youth Voter Turnout?". Stanford Social Innovation Review . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ ^a ^b Burden, B. (2009). "The dynamic effects of teaching on voter turnout". Electoral Studies. 28 (4): 540–549. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2009.05.027.
^ "Gender Differences in Voter Turnout" (PDF). Rutgers University Middle for American Women and Politics. July xx, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Waldman, Paul (March 17, 2016). "Stance | Why the 2016 election may produce the largest gender gap in history". Washington Post . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Study: Non-Voting Felons Increasing, ABC News, January vi, 2006.
^ McDonald, Michael P.; Popkin, Samuel L. (December 2001). "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter". The American Political Science Review. 95 (4): 963–974. doi:x.1017/S0003055400400134. JSTOR 3117725. S2CID 141727274.
^ "2004G - United States Elections Projection". www.electproject.org . Retrieved Oct 31, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "2020g - The states Elections Project". www.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ "Denominator - United States Elections Projection".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^eastward "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections | The American PresidencyProject". www.presidency.ucsb.edu . Retrieved Jan viii, 2021.
^ "2012 Election Turnout Dips Below 2008 and 2004 Levels: Number Of Eligible Voters Increases By Viii 1000000, Five Million Fewer Votes Cast" (PDF). Bipartisan Policy Middle. November 8, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ "Voter Turnout Data - U.s. Elections Project". www.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". UC Santa Barbara American Presidency Project . Retrieved January 29, 2018.

External links [edit]

"National Turnout Rates, 1787-2018" (United States Election Project)