The Role of Voter Turnout
What role does voter turnout play in American elections? The answer is a big role as high voter turnout for any particular candidate could hand the victory to that person. For example, the voting age population in the United States during the 2016 Presidential election was just over 250 million people. About 139 million votes were cast representing less than 56% turnout. It was higher than 2012, but lower than 2008. Who shows up to vote in the 2020 Presidential election will definitely decide the victor. If we go back in time to look at the historical voter turnout, we need to remember that women did not have the right to vote until the 1920 Presidential election and that the African-American vote has often been stymied by unfair policies.
The Statistic of Voter Turnout
Voter turnout from 1828 to 1896 ranged from a low of just under 55% to a high of just over 80% which is a huge variance. from 1900 to 2016, the range was a low of 49% to a high of 73%. However, the last time in recent years that voter turnout in a U.S. Presidential election topped 60% was 1968. Since then, the range has been 49% to 58%. There is much room for improvement and every vote counts! The chart below, courtesy of Pew Research shows voter turnout throughout the world.
