This Election Likely Had the Highest Voter Turnout in Modern History

Yesterday, November 3, saw the largest number of voters for a presidential election in recent history.

Town & Country states that at least 159.8 million US citizens voted in this 2020 election.

"While more people have voted than at any other time in American history, percentage-wise, this number does not quite break records. Given that around 239.2 million Americans were eligible to vote in 2020, the projected number of voters brings us to a 66.8% turnout rate. This makes 2020 the year with the highest voter turnout since 1900, when Republican William McKinley won reelection with 73.7% turnout"- Town & Country.

The US population as of 2020 stands at 331 million, meaning that 48.277% of our nation cast their vote in this election.

However, in the election of 1876, it was estimated that a whopping 82.6% of eligible voters participated.

In 1876, as most of us know, the voting population back then consisted of strickly white men.

Some do believe that the options of either mailing in a ballot or voting earlier are perhaps why the voter turnout was higher this year than that of 2016.

Of course, in 2016, we didn't have the COVID-19 pandemic going on either.

Never the less, with easier access to mail-in ballots this year, over 100 million Americans took this opportunity to cast their vote earlier than yesterday's election day.

Source: Town & Country