this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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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.

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[–] Carrolade 79 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The 2024 presidential election saw record-high turnout

nearing 2020 levels

Is it just me or do these two statements directly contradict each other?

[–] Lasherz12 39 points 3 days ago

You're right. This reeks of choosing your narrative before looking at the data to me.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 10 points 3 days ago

3rd highest turnout since 1900 is a bronze metal and absolutely one for the record books.

[–] someguy3 57 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Trump basically got the same number of votes as 2020. Someone else didn't show up.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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).

[–] EleventhHour 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Compared to the nearly 11m dems who stayed home this election, it’s not that much.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's possible and what a lot of people are saying.

It's also possible people who voted for Biden voted for Trump instead.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

"Big voter turnout" to me would still be wrong.
155+ million voters in 2020

Population increases by roughly 6 million

Less than 150 million voters in 2024.

If we consider decreasing voter turnout high turnout, sure, it was high. That said, yes some voters likely swayed, but I'd like 80-90% voter turnout to be considered high, but we never get that.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 2 points 3 days ago

This is literally the third highest turnout since 1900 by VEP, only behind 2020 and 1960. This is hardly a low turnout election. The last 'low turnout' election was 2000, most of the ones since have been average or slightly above.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Less than 150 million voters in 2024.

It's more than 150 million. The current count is about 153 million, and there's still more left to count in California.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

11 days later and still counting, jeez. There as to be better ways to do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Several states have rules that the mail-in ballots have to be dropped in the mail on election day, and the mail can take a few days to be received, confirmed as eligible/valid, and then counted.

Many states have rules that allow for people to submit provisional ballots to be submitted and set aside while the system verified that the voter is eligible, and they don't actually unseal and count the ballot until they confirm the voter's eligibility.

Some even have rules where if a ballot is going to be challenged for not meeting the criteria for voting, such as matching the voter's signature on file, the voter is given an opportunity to cure the defect. This can take weeks.

Significantly, the largest state, California, does all of these. They do 100% absentee voting, which increases the administrative overhead of counting (each envelope must be validated before being opened, many ballots not received by election day, a long process for disqualifying or curing ballots). So they're the slowest. And they have the most. But they also have high voter participation rates, which is the goal of these voter-friendly policies that slow down counting.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 1 points 3 days ago

Also voters died. Old age, COVID, random accidents

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Big? Trump got elected with only 20% of USians voting for him.
Anything less than 90% turnout would already start being dangerous for democracy.
Voting is not a right, it's a duty.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is literally the third highest turnout since 1900 by VEP, only behind 2020 and 1960. This is hardly a low turnout election. The last 'low turnout' election was 2000, most of the ones since have been average or slightly above.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

That just means that USian democracy is sick for a long time.
Here in Brazil we have lots of problems and room to improve, but I think we do right by requiring everybody to register to vote on turning 18 and if anyone misses an election without justification they are fined.

[–] jeffw 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

They never talk about percentages of eligible voters because it would be obvious that nobody wants any of these creeps and this "democracy" is a total sham.

Seriously I've tried to google this information historically. It's not easy. I saw a zine about this a few years ago but I can never find it.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 1 points 3 days ago

The VEP is the third highest since 1900, only behind 2020 and 1960. This is an extremely high turnout election

[–] Prox 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 2 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] themeatbridge 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Too bad this might be the last one

[–] themeatbridge 1 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] fluxion 5 points 3 days ago

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

[–] Lasherz12 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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.

[–] troglodytis 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

We got 60ish% participation of adults, 64ish% of 'eligible' voters.

We need 100ish

[–] ThatOneKrazyKaptain 1 points 3 days ago

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