There’s no doubt there are plenty of Americans still reeling from the Presidential election, with some still celebrating Donald Trump’s win and others shaking their heads and crying a little. Voter turnout is always important in every election, and a new report sheds some light on who exactly came out to the polls this past November.
Nonprofit VOTE and the U.S. Elections Project just released the "America Goes to The Polls," report, which reveals that overall 60.2% of eligible voters turned out for the election which is 1.6% higher than in 2012, but lower than 2008’s turnout.
The highest voter turn out was in Minnesota (74.8%), Maine (72.8%), New Hampshire (72.5%), Colorado (72.1%), Wisconsin (70.5%), and Iowa (69.0%). Interestingly, all six of these states offer same-day voter registration. On the flipside, the lowest turn out was in Hawaii (43%), West Virginia (50.8%), Texas (51.6%), Tennessee (52.0%) and Arkansas (53.1%), the third consecutive election where all five ranked in the bottom. All five also made it harder to folks to register, cutting off the ability to register three to four weeks before the election.
Another interesting fact from the report, a lot of folks who live in key battleground states aren’t voters. In fact, 147 million eligible voters (65%) live in non-battleground states where the outcome of the vote is predictable.
Source: Nonprofit Vote