What was the voter turnout in the 2012 election?
They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 60.4%; 2008 62.3%; and 2012 57.5%. [26] The BPC 2012 vote count is low because their document was written just after the 2012 election, before final counts were in.
What percentage of eligible voters voted in the 2004 election?
They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 60.4%; 2008 62.3%; and 2012 57.5%. [26]
How many Americans voted in last year’s election?
(Megan Varner/Getty Images) Americans voted in record numbers in last year’s presidential election, casting nearly 158.4 million ballots. That works out to more than six-in-ten people of voting age and nearly two-thirds of estimated eligible voters, according to a preliminary Pew Research Center analysis.
Which states did voter turnout drop from 2008?
The turnout percentage of eligibles voting was down from 2008 in every state and the District of Columbia, except two—Iowa and Louisiana. The turnout numbers of citizens who cast ballots were down in every state but six—Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
What was the voting percentage in 2012?
Overall voting rates have fluctuated in recent presidential races, from a low of 58.4 percent of the citizen population in 1996 to a high of about 64.0 percent in both 2004 and 2008 (Table 1). In 2012, the overall voting rate was 61.8 percent.
What percentage of blacks voted in 2012?
Blacks Voted at a Higher Rate than Whites in 2012 Election - A First, Census Bureau Reports. About two in three eligible blacks (66.2 percent) voted in the 2012 presidential election, higher than the 64.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites who did so, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.
Which of the following groups has the highest voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election?
In 2012, voting rates for non-Hispanic blacks (66.6 percent) were higher than non-Hispanic whites (64.1 percent) for the first time in this series.
What percentage of people voted for Obama in 2012?
Obama won 332 electoral votes and 51.1% of the popular vote compared to Romney's 206 electoral votes and 47.2%.
How many voters voted in 2018?
A total of 49.4 percent of eligible voters voted in 2018, compared to a turnout of just 36.0 percent of eligible voters in 2014. The 2018 elections had highest turnout of any mid-term election held since the 1914 elections.
What percentage of people vote?
This report provides analysis of voters in presidential elections since 1980, with a focus on the election of 2016. According to the Current Population Survey, 2020 voter turnout was 68.4% for women and 65.0% for men. About 9.7 million more women than men voted.
What is the average voter turnout in the US for a presidential election quizlet?
Since the 1960s, voter turnout in the United States for presidential elections has averaged about 40 percent.
What is a turnout rate?
In political science, voter turnout refers to the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can refer to the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people.
What percent of Americans voted in 2016?
Turnout statisticsElectionVoting-age population (VAP)Turnout as % of VAP2008229,945,00057.1%2012235,248,00053.8%2016249,422,00054.8%2020257,605,08862.0%19 more rows
What was significant about the election of Barack Obama in 2008?
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States, sparking many celebrations in the United States and around the world. He gained almost 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes.
What is the only state that does not require voter registration quizlet?
North Dakota is the only state that does not require voter registration.
What was the main cause for dropping the legal voting age to eighteen?
Sentiment to lower the nation's voting age dates back to WWII. As American involvement in the war increased, President Roosevelt sought to increase the size of the nation's military and lowered the draft age of young men from 21 to 18 years old.
What was the voter turnout rate in 2012?
The 2012 turnout rate of 58.2% is just slightly higher than the 1992 rate of 58.1%, arguably one of the more exciting recent elections due to the uncertainty surrounding the three-way race between ...
How much did Obama's turnout drop in 2012?
The reelection of Barack Obama was tarnished by a lower voter turnout rate than 2008, dropping from 61.6% of those eligible to vote to 58.2% , or a decrease of 3.4 percentage points. Here, I place the 2012 turnout rate in historical perspective and analyze where turnout decreased, and where it increased. These turnout patterns illuminate how participation is stimulated in battleground states, how much the devastation of Hurricane Sandy depressed turnout, and provide insights to the much-discussed rise in the minority share of the electorate.
What was the turnout rate for Obama's reelection?
The reelection of Barack Obama was tarnished by a lower voter turnout rate than 2008, dropping from 61.6 percent of those eligible to vote to 58.2 percent, or a decrease of 3.4 percentage points. Here, I place the 2012 turnout rate in historical perspective.
What presidents failed to win reelection?
It is easier to mobilize people against than to approve a political figure. The two modern presidents who sought reelection and failed were Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. The 1980 election saw a slight 0.6 percentage point turnout decline from 1976 and the 1992 election saw a dramatic 5.3 percentage point increase from 1988. (Gerald Ford also sought election, but did not formally seek reelection in his role of replacing Richard Nixon following the resignation.)
Why should battleground states have higher turnout?
The presidential campaigns and outside organizations buy up airtime to disseminate their commercials, they recruit volunteers to talk to voters, and the candidates themselves often come to town. These mobilization efforts motivate voters who perceive that their vote will matter to participate in the election.
What states were in the 2012 battleground?
Putting DC aside for a moment, these three states were Iowa, Nevada, and Wisconsin. An obvious commonality is that all three are 2012 battleground states.
Why do presidential campaigns buy up airtime?
The presidential campaigns and outside organizations buy up airtime to disseminate their commercials, they recruit volunteers to talk to voters, and the candidates themselves often come to town. These mobilization efforts motivate voters who perceive that their vote will matter to participate in the election.
What was the voter turnout in 2012?
They estimate that as a percent of eligible voters, turnout was: 2000, 54.2%; in 2004 60.4%; 2008 62.3%; and 2012 57.5%.
Why is the 2012 BPC vote count low?
The BPC 2012 vote count is low because their document was written just after the 2012 election, before final counts were in . Their voting-eligible population (VEP) does not include adjustments for felons (see p.13). The United States Elections Project, by Michael McDonald calculates VEP including citizenship and adjustments for felons. The site's data on turnout as percentage of eligible voters (VEP), is slightly higher and similar to BPC: 2000 55.3%, 2004 60.7%, 2008 62.2%, 2012 58.6%. McDonald's voter turnout data for 2016 is 60.1% and 50% for 2018.
How does education affect voter turnout?
Education is another factor considered to have a major impact on voter turnout rates. A study by Burman investigated the relationship between formal education levels and voter turnout. This study demonstrated the effect of rising enrollment in college education circa 1980s, which resulted in an increase in voter turnout. However, "this was not true for political knowledge"; a rise in education levels did not have any impact in identifying those with political knowledge (a signifier of civic engagement) until the 1980s election, when college education became a distinguishing factor in identifying civic participation. This article poses a multifaceted perspective on the effect of education levels on voter turnout. Based on this article, one may surmise that education has become a more powerful predictor of civic participation, discriminating more between voters and non-voters. However, this was not true for political knowledge; 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 be high in instances where registration has been initiated by the state and the number of electoral parties is small. One may contend that ease of access – and not education level – may be an indicator of voting behavior. Presumably larger, more urban cities will have greater budgets/resources/infrastructure dedicated to elections, which is why youth may have higher 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), perhaps there is an external variable (i.e. election infrastructure) at play. Smith and Tolbert's (2005) research reiterates that the presence of ballot initiatives and portals within a state have a positive effect on voter turnout. Another correlated finding in his study (Snyder, 2011) was that education is less important as a predictor of voter turnout in states than tend to spend more on education. Moreover, Snyder's (2011) research suggests that students are more likely to vote than non-students. It may be surmised that an increase of state investment in electoral infrastructure facilitates and education policy and programs results in increase voter turnout among youth.
What factors influenced voter turnout in 2008?
Age, education, and income. 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 perhaps the best predictor of voter turnout, and in the 2008 election, those holding advanced degrees were three times more likely ...
What amendment gave African Americans the right to vote?
The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States 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 have contributed to the increases in the proportion of votes cast for president as a percentage of the total population during the 1870s, there does not seem to have been a significant long-term increase in the percentage of eligible voters who turn out for the poll. The disenfranchisement of most African Americans and many poor whites in the South during the years 1890–1910 likely contributed to the decline in overall voter turnout percentages during those years visible in the chart below.
Why do people vote more?
Harder and Krosnick (2008) contend that some of the reasons for this may be due to "differences in motivation or ability (sometimes both)" (Harder and Krosnick, 2008), or that less wealthy people have less energy, time, or resources to allot towards voting. Another potential reason may be that wealthier people believe that they have more at stake if they don't vote than those with less resources or income. Maslow's hierarchy of needs might also help explain this hypothesis from a psychological perspective. If those with low income are struggling to meet the basic survival needs of food, water, safety, etc., they will not be motivated enough 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.
Has voter turnout declined since 1972?
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.
What is voter turnout rate?
The voter turnout rate is a mathematical expression that indicates how many eligible voters participated in an election. A variety of factors can factor into calculations of voter turnout. For the purposes of this article, voter turnout rates are expressed as follows:
What is the highest office on the ballot?
In presidential election years, the presidency is the highest office on the ballot in every state. In non-presidential election years, the highest office on the ballot varies from state to state.
Does Ballotpedia curate or endorse articles?
These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
What is voting eligible population?
Voting Eligible Population is an attempt to make an even more precise definition of the population of people who have a legal right to vote—potential voters. Making the estimates of noncitizens and disfranchized felons has been carried out mostly by Professor Michael McDonald and data are published in the U.S. Elections Project website.
What is the denominator for voting age?
Various measures may be used as the denominator: (1) The Voting Age Population —broadly speaking it is the population above the legal voting age; (2) Voting Eligible Population —all citizens who are not excluded from voting because of some legal impediment; (3) Registered voters.
What is registered voter?
Registered voters counts the total number of eligible people who have taken the additional step of actually registering to vote. We report here the estimates produced by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. This revised table no longer reports registration totals before 1968, consistent with recent CPS publications. Registration was not a universal requirement until “well into the twentieth century” (Ansolabhere and Konisky) and some states did not impose uniform registration requirements until the 1970s. As of 2016, North Dakota had no registration requirement. So it is possible for the number of votes to exceed the number of registered voters. Scholars point out that census data may not be entirely accurate (see Bennett 1990). A data source that may be of interest to many is the U.S. Election Assistance Commission which surveys county-level officials about voting and elections. Among their data is a series reporting the total number of persons "registered and eligible to vote." For 2016, the sum of the individual county numbers, for counties with data in the US is 185,714,229--a number 15% greater than the CPS estimate for the same year and election.
Why is turnout important in democracy?
First: turnout may be a way of assessing the health of a popular democracy. Well-functioning democracies are more inclusive and will have higher turnout.
Who are the two people who have taken the time to suggest specific modifications to our data on turnout?
We thank users who have taken the time to suggest specific modifications to our data on turnout: Thomas Meagher and Phil Kiesling.
Who published the turnout problem?
So women are excluded prior to 1920. The classic attempt to define the voting age population for the 19th century is by Walter Dean Burnham, “The Turnout Problem” in Elections American Style ed., Reichley (Brookings: Washington D.C., 1987) Burnham published only the turnout ratio, not his actual estimate of the voting age population!
How many people voted in the 2020 presidential election?
3, 2020. (Megan Varner/Getty Images) Americans voted in record numbers in last year’s presidential election, casting nearly 158.4 million ballots. That works out to more than six-in-ten people of voting age and nearly two-thirds of estimated eligible voters, ...
How much did the voter turnout increase in 2016?
In Hawaii, turnout rose from 42.3% of the estimated voting-eligible population in 2016 to 57% last year, the biggest turnout increase in the country by this measurement. In Utah, turnout increased by about 11 percentage points, from 56.8% of estimated eligible voters in 2016 to nearly 68% in 2020. The smallest turnout increases, as shares ...
How much higher was the turnout in 2016?
Nationwide, presidential election turnout was about 7 percentage points higher than in 2016, regardless of which of three different turnout metrics we looked at: the estimated voting-age population as of July 1, that estimate adjusted to Nov. 1, and the estimated voting-eligible population, which subtracts noncitizens and ineligible felons and adds overseas eligible citizens. Based on these measures, turnout was the highest since at least 1980, the earliest year in our analysis, and possibly much longer.
What is total ballot count?
For this post, we originally wanted to base our analysis on total ballots counted, a metric that includes all ballots regardless of offices voted for. (It’s typically slightly higher than the presidential vote, since there are always some voters who skip that contest but vote in down-ballot races.) But not all states have reported total-ballots data, so we turned our attention to the presidential race, which nearly always is the one that attracts the most votes.
Which state has the lowest voter turnout?
The lowest-turnout states were Tennessee (59.6% of estimated eligible voters), Hawaii and West Virginia (57% each), Arkansas (55.9%) and Oklahoma (54.8%).
Why did the turnout increase?
The rise in turnout was fueled in part by the bitter fight between incumbent President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden: A preelection survey found a record share of registered voters (83%) saying it “really matter [ed]” who won. But another big factor was the dramatic steps many states took to expand mail balloting and early voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
