--- title: "2. Voters’ and nonvoters’ experiences with the 2024 election" description: "Voters in the November 2024 election were about equally likely to vote in person on Election Day (34%), vote early in person (32%) or use an absentee or mail-in ballot (35%). Election Day voting Roughly a third of voters (34%) report having cast their ballot on Election Day, a smaller share than the 44% of […]" date: "2024-12-04" authors: - name: "Reem Nadeem" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/12/04/voters-and-nonvoters-experiences-with-the-2024-election/" categories: - "Election 2024" - "Election System & Voting Process" datasets: - name: "American Trends Panel Wave 159" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/american-trends-panel-wave-159/" --- # 2. Voters’ and nonvoters’ experiences with the 2024 election Voters in the November 2024 election were about equally likely to vote in person on Election Day (34%), vote early in person (32%) or use an absentee or mail-in ballot (35%). ##### Election Day voting [![Chart shows More voters cast ballots early in person than in previous elections](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/PP_2024.12.3_election-2024_2-01.png?w=420)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=195128) Roughly a third of voters (34%) report having cast their ballot on Election Day, a smaller share than the 44% of 2022 midterm voters who did this, but substantially more than the 27% who did so in 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. While the share of voters casting ballots in person on Election Day has [steadily declined over the last two decades](https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voting-mail-and-absentee-voting), it was the method used by a majority of voters until 2018. ##### Early in-person voting Early in-person voting hit a high point this year: 32% of voters report having cast their ballots this way, up from 27% in 2020 and 21% in 2022. ##### Absentee and mail-in voting The share who voted by absentee or mail-in ballot in this election is identical to the share of voters who voted by this method in the 2022 midterms. In 2020, 46% of voters voted by absentee or mail-in ballot. **Republicans continue to be more likely than Democrats to vote on Election Day, less likely to vote by mail. But rising shares in both parties voted early in person.** - 39% of Republican voters say they cast their vote in person on Election Day, compared with 28% of Democratic voters. - In contrast, 44% of Democratic voters say they voted by mail or absentee, compared with 26% of Republican voters. - 35% of Republican voters and 28% of Democratic voters report having voted early in person this year. ##### Some voters switched vote methods this year An overwhelming majority of voters who had voted in elections prior to 2024 (87%) report having used a voting method that was familiar to them in this election. Yet about 13% used a new method of voting this November: - 27% of early in-person voters say this was the first time they voted in person before Election Day. - 9% of absentee or mail voters say this was their first time voting by absentee or mail-in ballot. - 2% of voters who voted in person on Election Day say this was their first time doing so. ### Most voters say it was easy to vote in the election [![Chart shows Most say voting was very easy in 2024](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/PP_2024.12.3_election-2024_2-02.png?w=310)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=195129) An overwhelming majority of voters (94%) say it was easy to vote in the election this November. About eight-in-ten (79%) describe voting as very easy, while 15% say it was somewhat easy. Just 6% of voters say voting was somewhat (5%) or very (2%) difficult. Similar shares of voters who backed Donald Trump (95%) and Kamala Harris (93%) say that voting was easy. In 2020, 93% of Trump voters and 95% of Joe Biden voters said it was easy for them to cast their ballots. ### Most in-person voters had little or no wait to vote [![Chart shows Urban and suburban voters report somewhat longer wait times than rural voters in 2024 election](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/PP_2024.12.3_election-2024_2-03.png?w=420)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=195130) Roughly seven-in-ten voters who voted in person (72%) – either on Election Day or earlier – say they waited less than 10 minutes to vote, including 42% who report not waiting at all. About three-in-ten in-person voters (28%) waited at least 10 minutes to vote, including 11% who waited for more than 30 minutes and 4% who waited more than an hour. Voters report shorter wait times this year [than in 2020](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/11/20/the-voting-experience-in-2020/). #### Wait times of demographic groups ##### Race and ethnicity Black, White, Hispanic and Asian in-person voters report similar wait times this year. In 2020, [Black in-person voters reported waiting somewhat longer to vote](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/11/20/the-voting-experience-in-2020/) than White or Hispanic in-person voters. ##### Age Older and younger in-person voters reported similar wait times to cast their ballots. ##### Community type As was the case four years ago, urban and suburban in-person voters had to wait somewhat longer to vote on average than in-person voters living in rural communities. Urban and suburban in-person voters are each about 10 percentage points more likely than those in rural areas to have waited more than 10 minutes. ##### Vote method Those who voted in person before Election Day waited somewhat longer than those who voted on Election Day: 33% of early in-person voters waited more than 10 minutes, compared with 24% of Election Day in-person voters. ##### Candidate preference In-person voters who backed Trump and those who backed Harris report nearly identical wait times. By contrast, in 2020 in-person Biden voters reported waiting longer to vote than Trump voters. ### Nonvoters’ views of the election [![Chart shows A majority of nonvoters do not wish they had voted in 2024 presidential election](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/PP_2024.12.3_election-2024_2-04.png?w=310)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=195131) Among those eligible to vote who say they *did not* cast a ballot, 42% say they wish they had voted while 57% say they do not. These shares are similar to other recent presidential elections: 45% of nonvoters said they wished they had voted following the 2020 election, and 44% said this postelection in 2016. Nonvoters point to a number of reasons for their decisions not to vote: [![Chart shows Many nonvoters in 2024 say they don’t like politics or didn’t think their vote would make a difference](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/PP_2024.12.3_election-2024_2-05.png?w=420)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=195132) - 35% say thinking their vote would not make a difference was a major reason why they did not vote. - 31% say that not liking politics was a major reason. - 18% say it was that they are not registered or not eligible to vote. - 17% say a major reason was that they did not care about the outcome. - 15% say voting was inconvenient. - 8% say a major reason was they forgot to vote. --- **Next:** [3. Voters’ reflections on the 2024 campaign](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/12/04/voters-reflections-on-the-2024-campaign.md)