US election turnout drops to 57%

Around 100 million Americans, or 43% of eligible voters, did not vote in last week’s presidential election, according to estimates by the US Elections Project.

1.4 million more votes were cast this year than in the previous presidential election in 2012—but, due to population growth, this equates to a fall from 58.6% to 57% of the electorate. In 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected, turnout was 61.6%, its highest point for 40 years.

According to FiveThirtyEight, turnout was unchanged since 2012 in states that voted for Donald Trump, whereas turnout in states that voted for Hillary Clinton dropped by an average of 2.3 percentage points.

Based on current estimates, 60.5 million Americans voted for Clinton, 60 million for Trump, and 6.2 million for a third-party candidate, while a further 100 million did not vote.

Analysis published earlier this year by Pew Research Center shows that the US tends to have poor voter turnout compared to other developed economies.

Stephan Heblich has written for IZA World of Labor about the effect of the internet on voting behavior. He writes that the early phase of the internet has coincided with low turnout globally, possibly due to an “information overload” effect, but this could be reversed by more recent trends in social media. He writes that: “Regulating the internet may be necessary, but it can also stifle innovation. Therefore, policymakers should consider introducing measures to educate voters to become more discriminating in their use of the internet.”

Related article:
The effect of the internet on voting behavior by Stephan Heblich