Voter turnout for the 2020 election smashed previous election turnouts, notching the highest percentage of eligible voters making their voices heard since 1900, when President William McKinley won reelection.
Upward of 160 million voters cast their ballots in this year’s election, according to Michael McDonald, a Florida professor who runs the United States Election Project.
McDonald’s preliminary data suggests this year’s turnout rate was as high as 66.9%. In 2016, the project reported a voter turnout of 60%.
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
Historically, the U.S. has had one of the lowest voter turnout rates of the developed world by voting-age population. The results of the 2016 election had the sixth-worst turnout of 37 countries analyzed by the Pew Research Center.
The record-breaking turnout this year is attributable in part to the dramatic increase in mail-in and early voting across the country. The coronavirus pandemic prompted a number of states to expand early voting — some states began their early voting period in September, according to Ballotpedia.
Some states even mailed out ballots to all eligible voters. All-mail voting is used in every election by Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, but the practice was expanded into Vermont, Nevada, California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia this year.
The influx of mail-in ballots has overwhelmed many states, leading to protracted tallies and delayed results across the country. Staffing concerns in seven Pennsylvania counties have caused election officials to hold off on counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday. Pennsylvania has only reported 64% of its expected votes as of Wednesday morning.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has a lead in the popular vote of 2 million votes, but several key battleground states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, have fluctuating margins of less than 1 percentage point, prompting talks of recounts and protracted legal battles.
