Voters line up before polls open on Election Day at a precinct in Warren, Mich., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.
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, the election went to the House of Representatives, and it 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 per cent of those eligible was common — often reflecting sharp discord. The second-highest turnout — 81.2 per cent — 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 per cent and 48.9 per cent, respectively, as women gained suffrage and the number of eligible voters doubled. In most years since somewhere between 50 per cent and 60 per cent voted; the last time more than 60 per cent voted was 1968 when Richard M. Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey and turnout was 60.7 per cent.
The worst turnout in recent years — 49 per cent — occurred in 1996 when Democrat Bill Clinton won a second term by defeating Republican Bob Dole.
In 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, 59.2 per cent voted.
