With some 160 million ballots cast, turnout in US election highest since 1900

An estimated 66.6% of eligible voters participated in closely contested run for White House, with mail-in and early voting due to virus fears apparently driving up numbers

By Stuart Winer

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and AP 5 November 2020, 5:04 pm

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The US election saw more Americans cast ballots than ever before, with turnout reaching levels not seen in 120 years, according to initial estimates.

Nearly 160 million people cast ballots, according to an estimate from the US Elections Project at the University of Florida. That’s some 66.6% of the eligible population of just over 239 million.

The last time the participation figure was that high was for the 1900 election, when an estimated 73.7% turned out and elected Republican William McKinley. By comparison, in 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, 59.2% voted.

In sheer numbers, turnout is highest ever, thanks to a growing US population, now estimated at 330 million citizens.

Joe Biden’s 72 million votes nationwide are the most ever received by a candidate. That beats out the 69,498,516 votes won by Barack Obama in 2008. With 68.3 million votes and counting, Trump will likely end up with the third-most ever won by a candidate.

Over 100 million votes were made during early voting, including mail-in ballots, a figure twice that of 2016, NBC news reported Wednesday citing data from the NBC News Decision Desk and analytics firm TargetSmart.

That’s no surprise, given the coronavirus pandemic, which caused most states to expand mail-in and early voting options to allow the public to cast ballots without potentially being exposed to the virus.

Workers prepare mail-in ballots for counting the convention center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.,November 4, 2020. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Turnout was highest in Maine and Minnesota, with 79.2 percent turnout each. Lowest was Oklahoma, with 55.3 percent.

National voting patterns showed that while men were almost equally divided in their support for both candidates, women went 56%-43% for Biden, the BBC reported citing Edison Research/NEP data from Reuters.

White voters tended to support Trump (56%) rather than Biden (42%) while Black voters overwhelmingly backed Biden (87%) against Trump (12%). Other ethnic minorities also favored Biden with Hispanic/Latino voters giving him 65% to Trump’s 32%, and 63% of Asian voters backing Biden to just 31% supporting Trump.

Among other unspecified ethnic groups, Biden was also ahead (58%) of Trump (40%), according to the report.

Voters work on their ballots at a polling station at the Hot and Cool Cafe, in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles, November 3, 2020. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

Age grouping showed a trend of higher support for Biden among younger voters, that dropped off in favor of Trump with increasing age.

Those aged 18-29 voted predominantly for Biden (61%) rather than Trump’s (35%), in the 30- to 44-year-old bracket the balance was still in favor of Biden (52%) over Trump (45%), while in the 45-64 year-old group the two were nearly even as Biden gain 50% to Trump’s 49%. Among voters older than 65, Trump had the upper hand with 50% of the vote to Biden’s 48%.

College graduates favored Biden (55%) to Trump (43%) while among those who have no college degree voting was split with 49% for each candidate.

The Edison Research/NEP data sampled 14,698 respondents in a combination of election day interviews and phone polling.

A Republican election challenger at right watches over election inspectors as they examine a ballot as votes are counted into the early morning hours at the central counting board in Detroit, Novembe 4, 2020. (David Goldman/AP)

Another Edison/NEP poll, sampling 3,755 respondents, found that what mattered to most voters were the economy (35%), racial equality (20%), the coronavirus pandemic (17%), crime and safety (11%), and health care policy (11%), the BBC reported.

The final results of the election will likely only be known in a few days but by Thursday morning Biden seemed closer to entering the White House than incumbent Trump.

The voter turnout for the 2020 presidential election was massive by recent standards. But it didn’t come close to surpassing the record set in 1876.

That year, 81.8% of eligible American voters went to the polls.

The winner was Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, though he received fewer votes than his Democratic opponent, Samuel Tilden. Because 20 electoral votes were disputed, neither won a majority of the Electoral College, and the election went to the House of Representatives, which set up a commission that awarded the presidency to Hayes.

No reliable data is available until 1828. But during the last two-thirds of the 19th century, voter turnout of more than 70% of those eligible was common — often reflecting sharp discord. The second highest turnout — 81.2% — was in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas. Even before Lincoln took office, seven Southern states seceded.

In 1920 and 1924, turnout dropped to 49.2% and 48.9%, respectively, as women gained suffrage and the number of eligible voters doubled. In most years since, somewhere between 50% and 60% voted; the last time more than 60% voted was 1968, when Richard M. Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey and turnout was 60.7%.

The worst turnout in the modern era — 49% — occurred in 1996, when Democrat Bill Clinton won a second term by defeating Republican Bob Dole.