Turnout in U.S. has soared in recent elections but by some measures still trails that of many other countries
When comparing turnout among the voting-age population in recent national elections in 50 countries, the U.S. ranks 31st.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
When comparing turnout among the voting-age population in recent national elections in 50 countries, the U.S. ranks 31st.
Votes cast on Election Day have grown steadily less significant over the past several election cycles as a share of total votes cast.
We developed this explainer to help people understand how, and why, the complex U.S. electoral process is even more so this time around.
Mail-in ballots accounted for just over half of this year’s primary votes cast in the 37 states (plus D.C.) for which data is available.
After months of campaigning, debating, polling and fundraising, Democratic presidential candidates face their first real-world test Feb. 3.
In the 2016 general election, voters submitted nearly 33.5 million mail ballots, but more than 400,000 (1.2% of the total) weren’t counted.
On election night 2018, besides the exit polls there will be an additional source of data on who voted and why, developed by The Associated Press, Fox News and NORC at the University of Chicago and based on a very different methodology. That means that depending on where you go for election news, you may get a somewhat different portrait of this year’s electorate.
Many of the millions of Americans voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections will have to do so while working around the demands of their jobs – hitting their polling places before work, taking an extra-long lunch break or going afterward and hoping to make it before the polls close. As they stand in line, many of them may wonder why it is that the United States votes on a Tuesday, of all days.
Turnout in this year’s primaries for Congress and most state governorships surged compared with the last midterms in 2014, particularly among Democrats. Nearly a fifth (19.6%) of registered voters – about 37 million – cast ballots in primary elections for the U.S. House of Representatives – a 56% increase over the 23.7 million who voted in 2014’s House primaries. Turnout that year was 13.7% of registered voters.
Read a Q&A with Pew Research Center’s Ruth Igielnik and Scott Keeter about a recent study about voter files.
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