Summary
The 2024 presidential election saw record-high turnout nearing 2020 levels, with over 152 million ballots cast.
Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, defying conventional wisdom that high turnout benefits Democrats.
Key swing states like Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania had increased turnout, with Trump outperforming Kamala Harris in battlegrounds despite her strong voter mobilization.
The GOP’s focus on early and mail voting, as well as targeting infrequent voters, proved effective, signaling a shift in Republican turnout strategies in the Trump era.
The 2024 presidential election saw record-high turnout
nearing 2020 levels
Is it just me or do these two statements directly contradict each other?
You’re right. This reeks of choosing your narrative before looking at the data to me.
3rd highest turnout since 1900 is a bronze metal and absolutely one for the record books.
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Fair point, that is logical.
Trump basically got the same number of votes as 2020. Someone else didn’t show up.
No he didn’t. At last count, he’s sitting at 77.4 million votes, which is a little more than 3 million more votes than he got in 2020 (74.2).
Compared to the nearly 11m dems who stayed home this election, it’s not that much.
Where did you get that 11 million number? Vote totals so far are a little more than 5 million short of 2020. Everyone keeps talking about 11 million, 15 million, 20 million people who stayed home and I think it’s frankly a way to cope with the hard and gross truth that the country shifted right. Some people stayed home this year, but from all the sources I can see, it’s nowhere near 11 million, and the fascist candidate increasing his vote totals every year is very alarming. I get people who don’t want to face that. It’s scary as hell, especially if you’re in an out group. In my traditionally deeply blue state, the split gap between Harris and The Fanta Menace was like 55/45. That’s WAY too close for comfort and while people staying home is a problem, it’s not the main problem this time around.
Our population increases every year. I hate when people compare numbers instead of percentages (of eligible voters).
Did you ever stop and compare how many votes Biden got to Reagan? So much for Reagan having the biggest landslide! /s
Do we have any stats showing what percentage of eligible voters turned out this year? If the US population keeps increasing, we’d expect “record turnout” every election.
63 and a half percent. Third highest since 1900, only behind 2020(65.8%) and 1960(high 64s to low 65s depending on source). For context, 2008 was 61.6, 2016 was 59.2, and 2000 was 54.3.
According to Wikipedia, about 155.5 million people voted in 2020 and so far, there are about 150.2 votes counted this time (98% of votes counted). They say that in 2020 we had a 66.6% turnout, but until all the votes are counted, we don’t have a turnout number yet. That said, it seems on track to be a little lower than 2020, although not by a huge margin.
According to Wikipedia, about 155.5 million people voted in 2020 and so far, there are about 150.2 votes counted this time (98% of votes counted).
These numbers exclude third parties and independents.
When those are included, 2020 included 158.4 million votes, and the current count so far in 2024 is about 153 million.
We got 60ish% participation of adults, 64ish% of ‘eligible’ voters.
We need 100ish
64ish is literally the third highest since 1900, only behind 1960(similar range) and 2020(65ish). It was 54% in 2000. This stuff tends to eb and flow. There was a steady decline from 1960 until 2000 and it’s been rising since. 1920-1960 was steady growth, 1870s to 1920s was a decline. Prior to that it was growth more or less since the start
Lot of accurate criticisms in this thread, but something we should also keep in mind, progressives are OK with that. If voters vote and it doesn’t go our way, we don’t look for ways to restrict voting or prevent voters from participating in the process. We don’t call in bomb threats or create arbitrary obstacles to voting. We celebrate high voter turnout, even when we lose. Democracy is bigger than one election.
Too bad this might be the last one
I agree with you, but if the time for another revolution has arrived, we need to remember that it wasn’t democracy that got us here, it was corruption. When we win, we should not seek retribution or tit-for-tat oppressive policies.
That’s how we felt before 2020 anyway. People actively voting for a party trying to destroy democracy changes the calculus a bit and we can no longer ignore the long-term ramifications of placing these kinds of people in power
6 million less people voted so far than 2020, which is enough to make up the popular vote difference. I think this article’s conclusion is both* dismissive of population growth and also too generous in assuming those missing votes would have been split the same as those who did show up.
