December 7, 2020 | less than a minute read

It's Official - Record Voter Turnout in 2020

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Jason P.W. Halperin

Member

Get in touch

Jason P.W. Halperin

Member

It's now official -- the 2020 election cycle saw record voter turnout with nearly 160 million Americans voting. That's a 66.7 percent voter turnout rate, which is the highest voter turnout since the presidential election of 1900 -- 120 years ago.

This is one of the biggest stories of the 2020 election. As this New York Times article notes, the record turnout was driven by "the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged period for casting ballots."

We are finally making it easier to vote in the United States, with initiatives like automatic voter registration, same-day registration, voting by mail, and early voting. The results prove that when you increase access to voting and voter registration, turnout rates increase substantially.

Nearly 160 million Americans voted in the 2020 elections, by far the most in history and a level of turnout not seen in over a century, representing an extraordinary milestone of civic engagement in a year marked by a devastating pandemic, record unemployment and political unrest. With all but three states having completed their final count, and next week’s deadline for final certification of the results approaching, the sheer volume of Americans who actually voted in November was eye-opening: 66.7 percent of the voting-eligible population . . . It is the highest percentage since 1900, . . ., and easily surpasses two high-water marks of the modern era: the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy and the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Since the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 . . ., turnout had never surpassed 64 percent.