What Percentage Of The People Of The Us Are Registered To Vote

Aspect of election history

The historical trends in voter turnout in the United States presidential elections accept been determined by the gradual expansion of voting rights from the initial restriction to white male property owners aged 21 or older in the early on years of the country's independence to all citizens aged xviii or older in the mid-20th century. Voter turnout in United states of america presidential elections has historically been college than the turnout for midterm elections.^[1]

Approximately 240 million people were eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election and roughly 66.i% of them submitted ballots, totaling nearly 158 one thousand thousand. Biden received most 81 1000000 votes, Trump about 74 one thousand thousand votes, and other candidates (including Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins) a combined approximately 3 million votes.

History of voter turnout [edit]

U.S. presidential election pop vote totals as a percentage of the total U.S. population. The blackness line is the total turnout, while colored lines reflect votes for major parties. This chart represents the number of votes cast as a percent of the full population, and does non compare either of those quantities with the percent of the population that was eligible to vote.^[3]

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

The gradual expansion of the right to vote from only property-owning men to include all white men over 21 was an important motility in the menstruation from 1800 to 1830.^[iv] Older states with property restrictions dropped them, namely all but Rhode Island, Virginia and Due north Carolina past the mid-1820s. No new states had property qualifications, although iii had adopted tax-paying qualifications – Ohio, Louisiana and Mississippi, of which simply in Louisiana were these significant and long-lasting.^[5] The process was peaceful and widely supported, except in Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the demand for equal suffrage was broad and strong, although the subsequent reform included a significant property requirement for any resident born outside of the United States. However, free blackness men lost voting rights in several states during this flow.^[six]

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 function 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 adult male population in the 1840 presidential election.^[7] Tax-paying qualifications remained in just 5 states by 1860 – Massachusetts, Rhode Isle, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina.^[viii]

Another innovative strategy for increasing voter participation and input followed. Prior to the presidential election of 1832, the Anti-Masonic Political party conducted the nation'southward commencement presidential nominating convention. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, September 26–28, 1831, it transformed the procedure past which political parties select their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.^[9]

1870s: African American male suffrage [edit]

The passage of the Fifteenth Subpoena to the United States Constitution in 1870 gave African American men the correct 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 accept been a significant long-term increase in the per centum of eligible voters who turn out for the poll. The disenfranchisement of nigh African Americans and many poor whites in the South during the years 1890–1910 likely contributed to the decline in overall voter turnout percentages during those years visible in the nautical chart below.

Early 1920s: Women's suffrage [edit]

In that location was no systematic collection of voter turnout data by gender at a national level before 1964, but smaller local studies indicate a low turnout amongst female voters in the years following Women's suffrage in the United states of america. For example, a 1924 study of voter turnout in Chicago found that "female Chicagoans were far less probable to accept visited the polls on Election Solar day than were men in both the 1920 presidential election (46% vs. 75%) and the 1923 mayoral competition (35% vs. 63%)."^[ten] The study compared reasons given by male and female non-voters and found that female not-voters were more likely to cite general indifference to politics and ignorance or timidity regarding elections than male person non-voters, and that female voter were less likely to cite fright of loss of business or wages. Most significantly, however, 11% of female non-voters in the survey cited a "Disbelief in adult female'south voting" as the reason they did non vote.

The graph of voter turnout percentages shows a dramatic reject in turnout over the first two decades of the twentieth century, ending in 1920 when the Nineteenth Subpoena to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote across the United States. But in the preceding decades, several states had passed laws supporting women's suffrage. Women were granted the right to vote in Wyoming in 1869, before the territory had get a full land in the union. In 1889, when the Wyoming constitution was drafted in training for statehood, it included women'due south suffrage. Thus Wyoming was also the first total state to grant women the right to vote. In 1893, Colorado was the first state to amend an existing constitution in order to grant women the correct 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 torso of eligible voters, and because women were less likely to vote than men, each of these expansions created a decline in voter turnout rates, culminating with the extremely depression turnouts in the 1920 and 1924 elections after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

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

Historic period, pedagogy, and income [edit]

Voter turnout past sex activity and age for the 2008 U.Southward. Presidential Election.

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

Age [edit]

The historic period divergence is associated with youth voter turnout. Some debate that "historic period is an important factor in understanding voting blocs and differences" on various bug.^[11] Others argue that young people are typically "plagued" by political aloofness and thus do not have strong political opinions.^[12] As strong political opinions may be considered one of the reasons behind voting,^[13] political apathy among immature people is arguably a predictor for low voter turnout. One study found that potential young voters are more than willing to commit to voting when they see pictures of younger candidates running for elections/office or voting for other candidates, surmising that young Americans are "voting at higher and similar rates to other Americans when at that place is a candidate nether the age of 35 years running".^[14] As such, since nearly candidates running for office are pervasively over the historic period of 35 years,^[xv] youth may not be actively voting in these elections because of a lack of representation or visibility in the political procedure.

Recent decades have seen increasing concern over the fact that youth voter turnout is consistently lower than turnout among older generations. Several programs to increment the rates of voting amidst young people – such equally MTV'south "Rock the Vote" (founded in 1990) and the "Vote or Dice" initiative (starting in 2004) – may have marginally increased turnouts of those betwixt the ages of 18 and 25 to vote. Withal, the Stanford Social Innovation Review found no evidence of a turn down in youth voter turnout. In fact, they argue that "Millennials are turning out at similar rates to the previous two generations when they face their start elections."^[xvi]

Education [edit]

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

Pedagogy is another factor considered to accept a major affect on voter turnout rates. A study by Burman investigated the relationship between formal education levels and voter turnout.^[17] This study demonstrated the effect of rising enrollment in higher education circa 1980s, which resulted in an increase in voter turnout. Withal, "this was not true for political knowledge";^[17] a rise in teaching levels did not have whatsoever impact in identifying those with political knowledge (a signifier of civic engagement) until the 1980s ballot, when college pedagogy became a distinguishing factor in identifying civic participation. This commodity poses a multifaceted perspective on the effect of education levels on voter turnout. Based on this article, one may surmise that education has get a more powerful predictor of civic participation, discriminating more than betwixt voters and not-voters. Still, this was not truthful for political knowledge; 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 accept been established and are piece of cake to operate – i.e. voter turnout and participation tends to be high in instances where registration has been initiated by the state and the number of balloter parties is pocket-size. One may argue that ease of admission – and not education level – may exist an indicator of voting behavior. Presumably larger, more urban cities will have greater budgets/resources/infrastructure dedicated to elections, which is why youth may have higher turnout rates in those cities versus more than rural areas. Though youth in larger (read: urban) cities tend to be more educated than those in rural areas (Marcus & Krupnick, 2017), perhaps there is an external variable (i.east. election infrastructure) at play. Smith and Tolbert's (2005) research reiterates that the presence of election initiatives and portals within a state have a positive upshot on voter turnout. Another correlated finding in his study (Snyder, 2011) was that educational activity is less important as a predictor of voter turnout in states than tend to spend more than on education. Moreover, Snyder'south (2011) research suggests that students are more probable to vote than non-students. It may be surmised that an increase of state investment in balloter infrastructure facilitates and education policy and programs results in increase voter turnout among youth.

Income [edit]

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

Wealthier people tend to vote at higher 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 take less energy, time, or resources to allot towards voting. Another potential reason may be that wealthier people believe that they have more at stake if they don't vote than those with less resources or income. Maslow's hierarchy of needs might also aid explain this hypothesis from a psychological perspective. If those with low income are struggling to meet the basic survival needs of food, water, rubber, etc., they volition not exist motivated enough to reach the last stages of "Esteem" or "Cocky-actualization" needs (Maslow, 1943) – which consist of the want 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 Center for American Women and Politics summarizes how this trend tin 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 ballot since 1980, the proportion of eligible female person adults who voted has exceeded the proportion of eligible male person adults who voted [...]. In all presidential elections prior to 1980, the voter turnout rate for women was lower than the charge per unit for men. The number of female voters has exceeded the number of male voters in every presidential election since 1964..."^[18] This gender gap has been a determining factor in several recent presidential elections, as women have been consistently most 15% more likely to support the candidate of the Democratic Political party than the Republican candidate in each election since 1996.^[xix]

Race and ethnicity [edit]

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

Race and ethnicity has had an upshot on voter turnout in contempo years, with data from recent elections such as 2008 showing much lower turnout among people identifying equally Hispanic or Asian ethnicity than other voters (encounter chart to the correct). One factor impacting voter turnout of African Americans is that, as of the 2000 ballot, 13% of African American males are reportedly ineligible to vote nationwide considering of a prior felony confidence; in sure states – Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi – disenfranchisement rates for African American males in the 2000 election were around xxx%.^[20]

Other eligibility factors [edit]

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

Turnout statistics [edit]

The post-obit tabular array shows the bachelor information on turnout for the voting-age population (VAP) and voting-eligible population (VEP) since 1936.^[24]

Ballot	Voting-age Population (VAP)^[25]	Voting-eligible Population (VEP)^[25]	Turnout^[25]	% Turnout of VAP^[25] ^{[ description needed ]}	% Turnout of VEP^[25]
1932	75,768,000		39,817,000	52.six%
1936	lxxx,174,000		45,647,000	56.9%
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.half dozen%
1956	104,515,000		62,027,000	59.3%
1960	109,672,000		68,836,000	62.8%
1964	114,090,000		70,098,000	61.4%
1968	120,285,000		73,027,000	sixty.7%
1972	140,777,000		77,625,000	55.1%
1976	152,308,000		81,603,000	53.6%
1980	163,945,000	159,635,102	86,497,000	52.viii%	54.two%
1984	173,995,000	167,701,904	92,655,000	53.3%	55.ii%
1988	181,956,000	173,579,281	91,587,000	l.3%	52.8%
1992	189,493,000	179,655,523	104,600,000	55.2%	58.2%
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.three%
2004	219,553,000	203,483,455	122,349,000	55.7%	lx.1%
2008	229,945,000	213,313,508	131,407,000	57.1%	62.5%
2012	235,248,000	222,474,111	129,235,000	53.viii%	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%	66.9%

Note: The Bipartisan Policy Center has stated that turnout for 2012 was 57.5 percent of the voting-age population (VAP),^{[ description needed ]} which they claim was a decline from 2008. They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 lx.4%; 2008 62.three%; and 2012 57.v%.^[26]

The BPC 2012 vote count is depression because their document was written simply afterward the 2012 ballot, earlier final counts were in. Their voting-eligible population (VEP)^{[ description needed ]} does not include adjustments for felons (encounter p.xiii). The United States Elections Project, past Michael McDonald calculates VEP including citizenship and adjustments for felons. The site's data on turnout as percentage of eligible voters (VEP), is slightly higher and similar to BPC: 2000 55.3%, 2004 sixty.7%, 2008 62.2%, 2012 58.six%. McDonald'southward voter turnout data for 2016 is 60.1% and 50% for 2018.^[27]

After analysis by the Academy of California, Santa Barbara'south American Presidency Projection establish that there were 235,248,000 people of voting historic period in the United States in the 2012 election, resulting in 2012 voting age population (VAP) turnout of 54.9%.^[28] The total increment in VAP between 2008 and 2012 (5,300,000) was the smallest increase since 1964, bucking the modern average of viii,000,000–13,000,000 per bicycle.

References [edit]

^ New York Times Editorial Board (November 11, 2014). "Opinion | The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 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 Democracy in the United States (2009) ch 2
^ Engerman, pp. viii–9
^ Murrin, John G.; Johnson, Paul Eastward.; McPherson, James Thou.; Fahs, Alice; Gerstle, Gary (2012). Freedom, Equality, Ability: A History of the American People (6th ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. p. 296. ISBN978-0-495-90499-i.
^ William G. Shade, "The 2nd Party Organization". in Paul Kleppner, et al. Evolution of American Electoral 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 18, 2009). "Reluctant Suffragettes: When Women Questioned Their Right to Vote". Pew Research Center . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Berman; Johnson (2000). "Age, appetite, and the local charter: a study in voting beliefs".
^ Catapano, Tyler (2014). "?".
^ Munsey (2008). "Why We Wrote: Why do we vote?". APA Monitor. 39 (half-dozen): 60.
^ Pomante; Schraufnagel (2014). "Candidate Age and Youth Voter Turnout". American Politics Enquiry. 43 (three): 479–503. doi:10.1177/1532673x14554829. S2CID 156019567.
^ Struyk (2017). "The Autonomous Party has an age problem". CNN.
^ Kiesa, Abby; Levine, Peter (March 21, 2016). "Practise Nosotros Actually Want Higher Youth Voter Turnout?". Stanford Social Innovation Review . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ ^a ^b Brunt, B. (2009). "The dynamic effects of educational activity on voter turnout". Electoral Studies. 28 (iv): 540–549. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2009.05.027.
^ "Gender Differences in Voter Turnout" (PDF). Rutgers Academy Center for American Women and Politics. July xx, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Waldman, Paul (March 17, 2016). "Opinion | Why the 2016 ballot may produce the largest gender gap in history". Washington Postal service . Retrieved Jan 29, 2018.
^ Report: Non-Voting Felons Increasing, ABC News, January 6, 2006.
^ McDonald, Michael P.; Popkin, Samuel Fifty. (December 2001). "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter". The American Political Scientific discipline Review. 95 (four): 963–974. doi:x.1017/S0003055400400134. JSTOR 3117725. S2CID 141727274.
^ "2004G - U.s.a. Elections Projection". www.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "2020g - United States Elections Project". www.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ "Denominator - United States Elections Project".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections | The American PresidencyProject". world wide web.presidency.ucsb.edu . Retrieved Jan viii, 2021.
^ "2012 Ballot Turnout Dips Below 2008 and 2004 Levels: Number Of Eligible Voters Increases By Viii Million, Five Million Fewer Votes Cast" (PDF). Bipartisan Policy Heart. November eight, 2012. Retrieved Jan 29, 2018.
^ "Voter Turnout Data - United States Elections Project". www.electproject.org . Retrieved Oct 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" (The states Election Project)