What Percentage Of Registered Voters Voted By Party In 2016

Aspect of ballot 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 holding owners aged 21 or older in the early years of the country's independence to all citizens aged 18 or older in the mid-20th century. Voter turnout in United States presidential elections has historically been higher than the turnout for midterm elections.^[1]

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

History of voter turnout [edit]

U.S. presidential ballot pop vote totals as a pct of the total U.Due south. population. The blackness line is the total turnout, while colored lines reverberate votes for major parties. This chart represents the number of votes cast as a percentage of the full population, and does not compare either of those quantities with the percentage of the population that was eligible to vote.^[3]

Early on 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 movement in the period from 1800 to 1830.^[4] Older states with property restrictions dropped them, namely all but Rhode Isle, Virginia and Northward Carolina past the mid-1820s. No new states had property qualifications, although three had adopted tax-paying qualifications – Ohio, Louisiana and Mississippi, of which only in Louisiana were these significant and long-lasting.^[5] The process was peaceful and widely supported, except in Rhode Island. In Rhode Isle, the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the need for equal suffrage was broad and strong, although the subsequent reform included a significant holding requirement for whatever resident built-in outside of the United States. Withal, gratuitous blackness men lost voting rights in several states during this menstruum.^[6]

The fact that a man was now legally allowed to vote did not necessarily hateful he routinely voted. He had to be pulled to the polls, which became the most of import 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 adult male population in the 1840 presidential election.^[seven] Revenue enhancement-paying qualifications remained in only five states past 1860 – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Northward Carolina.^[8]

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's first 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.^[9]

1870s: African American male suffrage [edit]

The passage of the Fifteenth Subpoena to the U.s.a. 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 take contributed to the increases in the proportion of votes cast for president as a percent of the total population during the 1870s, at that place does not seem to have been a significant long-term increment in the percentage of eligible voters who turn out for the poll. The disenfranchisement of nearly African Americans and many poor whites in the South during the years 1890–1910 likely contributed to the pass up in overall voter turnout percentages during those years visible in the chart below.

Early on 1920s: Women's suffrage [edit]

There was no systematic collection of voter turnout data past gender at a national level before 1964, but smaller local studies bespeak a low turnout among female voters in the years post-obit women'south suffrage in the United States. For instance, a 1924 study of voter turnout in Chicago found that "female Chicagoans were far less likely to have visited the polls on Election 24-hour interval than were men in both the 1920 presidential election (46% vs. 75%) and the 1923 mayoral competition (35% vs. 63%)."^[10] The study compared reasons given by male person and female person non-voters and found that female non-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 probable to cite fright of loss of business or wages. Most significantly, however, 11% of female non-voters in the survey cited a "Atheism 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 showtime two decades of the twentieth century, ending in 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment 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'southward suffrage. Women were granted the correct to vote in Wyoming in 1869, before the territory had become a full land in the union. In 1889, when the Wyoming constitution was drafted in preparation for statehood, information technology included women's suffrage. Thus Wyoming was also the showtime total land to grant women the correct to vote. In 1893, Colorado was the first country 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 trunk of eligible voters, and because women were less probable to vote than men, each of these expansions created a refuse in voter turnout rates, culminating with the extremely low turnouts in the 1920 and 1924 elections subsequently the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

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

Age, education, 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 possibly the best predictor of voter turnout, and in the 2008 ballot, those holding avant-garde degrees were three times more likely to vote than those with less than high school education. Income correlated well with the likelihood of voting too. The income correlation may be because of a correlation between income and educational attainment, rather than a direct result of income.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Age [edit]

The age difference is associated with youth voter turnout. Some fence that "age is an important factor in understanding voting blocs and differences" on various issues.^[11] Others argue that young people are typically "plagued" by political apathy and thus exercise not have strong political opinions.^[12] As strong political opinions may exist considered i of the reasons backside voting,^[13] political apathy amidst immature people is arguably a predictor for low voter turnout. One study institute that potential young voters are more willing to commit to voting when they see pictures of younger candidates running for elections/office or voting for other candidates, surmising that immature Americans are "voting at higher and similar rates to other Americans when there is a candidate under the age of 35 years running".^[14] Every bit such, since most candidates running for role are pervasively over the age of 35 years,^[15] youth may not be actively voting in these elections considering of a lack of representation or visibility in the political process.

Recent decades take 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 among immature people – such as MTV's "Rock the Vote" (founded in 1990) and the "Vote or Die" initiative (starting in 2004) – may have marginally increased turnouts of those betwixt the ages of eighteen and 25 to vote. However, the Stanford Social Innovation Review found no bear witness of a refuse in youth voter turnout. In fact, they debate that "Millennials are turning out at similar rates to the previous two generations when they face their first elections."^[xvi]

Didactics [edit]

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

Education is another factor considered to take a major impact on voter turnout rates. A study by Burman investigated the relationship between formal pedagogy levels and voter turnout.^[17] This study demonstrated the effect of rising enrollment in college education circa 1980s, which resulted in an increment in voter turnout. Notwithstanding, "this was not true for political knowledge";^[17] a rising in instruction levels did not have any touch in identifying those with political knowledge (a signifier of civic engagement) until the 1980s election, when college education became a distinguishing cistron in identifying civic participation. This commodity poses a multifaceted perspective on the effect of education levels on voter turnout. Based on this article, 1 may surmise that education has become a more powerful predictor of civic participation, discriminating more between voters and non-voters. Withal, this was not true for political cognition; 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 easy to operate – i.e. voter turnout and participation tends to exist loftier in instances where registration has been initiated by the state and the number of balloter parties is pocket-size. Ane may argue that ease of admission – and not education level – may be an indicator of voting beliefs. Presumably larger, more than urban cities will accept greater budgets/resources/infrastructure defended to elections, which is why youth may have college turnout rates in those cities versus more rural areas. Though youth in larger (read: urban) cities tend to be more educated than those in rural areas (Marcus & Krupnick, 2017), possibly in that location is an external variable (i.e. ballot infrastructure) at play. Smith and Tolbert's (2005) inquiry reiterates that the presence of ballot initiatives and portals within a country take a positive effect on voter turnout. Another correlated finding in his report (Snyder, 2011) was that education is less important every bit a predictor of voter turnout in states than tend to spend more than on teaching. Moreover, Snyder's (2011) research suggests that students are more likely to vote than non-students. Information technology may exist surmised that an increment of state investment in balloter infrastructure facilitates and instruction 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 higher rates. Harder and Krosnick (2008) contend that some of the reasons for this may be due to "differences in motivation or power (sometimes both)" (Harder and Krosnick, 2008), or that less wealthy people have less energy, fourth dimension, or resource to allot towards voting. Some other potential reason may exist that wealthier people believe that they have more at stake if they don't vote than those with less resources or income. Maslow's bureaucracy of needs might also aid explain this hypothesis from a psychological perspective. If those with depression income are struggling to encounter the basic survival needs of nutrient, water, safety, etc., they volition not be motivated plenty to reach 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 Center for American Women and Politics summarizes how this tendency can be measured differently both in terms of proportion of voters to non-voters, and in terms of the bulk number of votes cast. "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 rate 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 factor in several recent presidential elections, as women have been consistently about fifteen% more likely to support 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.S. Presidential Ballot by race/ethnicity

Race and ethnicity has had an event on voter turnout in recent years, with data from recent elections such as 2008 showing much lower turnout among people identifying every bit Hispanic or Asian ethnicity than other voters (run across chart to the correct). I cistron impacting voter turnout of African Americans is that, as of the 2000 election, thirteen% 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 thirty%.^[20]

Other eligibility factors [edit]

Another factor influencing statistics on voter turnout is the percentage 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 least 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 land police) constituted virtually 2% of the voting-age population. By 2004, ineligible voters constituted nearly ten%.^[22] Ineligible voters are non evenly distributed beyond the country, roughly 15% of California's voting-age population is ineligible to vote – which confounds comparisons of states.^[23]

Turnout statistics [edit]

The following table shows the bachelor 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	52.6%
1936	80,174,000		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.one%
1952	99,929,000		61,552,000	61.six%
1956	104,515,000		62,027,000	59.three%
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	60.7%
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	52.8%	54.2%
1984	173,995,000	167,701,904	92,655,000	53.3%	55.2%
1988	181,956,000	173,579,281	91,587,000	fifty.iii%	52.eight%
1992	189,493,000	179,655,523	104,600,000	55.ii%	58.ii%
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	55.7%	60.i%
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.eight%	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.nine%

Notation: The Bipartisan Policy Eye has stated that turnout for 2012 was 57.5 pct of the voting-historic period population (VAP),^{[ clarification needed ]} which they merits was a decline from 2008. They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 60.iv%; 2008 62.3%; and 2012 57.5%.^[26]

The BPC 2012 vote count is low because their document was written simply afterwards the 2012 election, before final counts were in. Their voting-eligible population (VEP)^{[ clarification needed ]} does non include adjustments for felons (meet p.thirteen). The United states Elections Project, past Michael McDonald calculates VEP including citizenship and adjustments for felons. The site'due south data on turnout equally percentage of eligible voters (VEP), is slightly higher and similar to BPC: 2000 55.iii%, 2004 lx.vii%, 2008 62.2%, 2012 58.6%. McDonald's voter turnout data for 2016 is 60.1% and l% for 2018.^[27]

Later analysis by the Academy of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project found that at that place were 235,248,000 people of voting age in the United States in the 2012 election, resulting in 2012 voting age population (VAP) turnout of 54.9%.^[28] The total increase in VAP between 2008 and 2012 (5,300,000) was the smallest increase since 1964, bucking the modern boilerplate of 8,000,000–thirteen,000,000 per cycle.

References [edit]

^ New York Times Editorial Lath (November 11, 2014). "Opinion | The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved Jan 29, 2018.
^ "Voter Turnout Past State 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 The states (2009) ch 2
^ Engerman, pp. 8–nine
^ Murrin, John M.; Johnson, Paul E.; McPherson, James Thou.; Fahs, Alice; Gerstle, Gary (2012). Freedom, Equality, Power: A History of the American People (6th ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. p. 296. ISBN978-0-495-90499-one.
^ William Yard. Shade, "The Second Party Organisation". in Paul Kleppner, et al. Evolution of American Balloter Systems (1983) pp. 77–111
^ Engerman, p. 35. Tabular array 1
^ William Preston Vaughn, The Anti-Masonic Party in the United States: 1826–1843 (2009)
^ Allen, Jodie T. (March 18, 2009). "Reluctant Suffragettes: When Women Questioned Their Right to Vote". Pew Enquiry Center . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Berman; Johnson (2000). "Age, ambition, and the local lease: a report in voting beliefs".
^ Catapano, Tyler (2014). "?".
^ Munsey (2008). "Why We Wrote: Why do nosotros vote?". APA Monitor. 39 (vi): 60.
^ Pomante; Schraufnagel (2014). "Candidate Age and Youth Voter Turnout". American Politics Inquiry. 43 (three): 479–503. doi:ten.1177/1532673x14554829. S2CID 156019567.
^ Struyk (2017). "The Democratic Party has an age trouble". CNN.
^ Kiesa, Abby; Levine, Peter (March 21, 2016). "Do We Actually Want College Youth Voter Turnout?". Stanford Social Innovation Review . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ ^a ^b Burden, B. (2009). "The dynamic effects of education on voter turnout". Electoral Studies. 28 (four): 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 20, 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 January 29, 2018.
^ Study: Not-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 Science Review. 95 (4): 963–974. doi:10.1017/S0003055400400134. JSTOR 3117725. S2CID 141727274.
^ "2004G - United states Elections Project". world wide web.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "2020g - The states Elections Project". www.electproject.org . Retrieved Oct 31, 2020.
^ "Denominator - United States Elections Project".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^{due east} "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections | The American PresidencyProject". www.presidency.ucsb.edu . Retrieved January 8, 2021.
^ "2012 Election Turnout Dips Below 2008 and 2004 Levels: Number Of Eligible Voters Increases By Eight One thousand thousand, Five Million Fewer Votes Cast" (PDF). Bipartisan Policy Centre. November eight, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ "Voter Turnout Data - United States Elections Project". world wide web.electproject.org . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
^ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". UC Santa Barbara American Presidency Project . Retrieved Jan 29, 2018.

External links [edit]

"National Turnout Rates, 1787-2018" (United States Ballot Projection)