McDonald is associate professor of government and politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. He tracks voter turnout rates and is working with colleagues to develop open-source redistricting software through the Public Mapping Project. Are there any misconceptions about voter turnout?
People used to calculate turnout rates by dividing the number of people who voted divided by the “voting-age population,” which is everyone age 18 and older residing in the U.S. That’s not a very good definition — there’s a substantial noncitizen population and a nonvoting felon population that had been growing over time.
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