A record number of Americans turned out to vote in this year's presidential race between President Donald Trump and now President-Elect Joe Biden. Biden just won the presidency with over 74.4 million votes, and many are still being counted. The former Vice President garnered more votes than any presidential candidate in American history.
For both parties, voter turnout was record-breaking. According to Bloomberg, at least 161 million Americans voted in the 2020 election, the largest number of voters in a U.S. presidential election in history.
While more people have voted than at any other time in American history, percentage-wise, this number does not quite break records. Given that around 239.2 million Americans were eligible to vote in 2020, the projected number of voters brings us to a 66.8% turnout rate. This makes 2020 the year with the highest voter turnout since 1900, when Republican William McKinley won reelection with 73.7% turnout.
The highest voter turnout in history was in 1876, when 82.6% of eligible voters cast ballots in the race between Republican Rutherford Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. Hayes eventually won the presidency in a close, contested election.
These historical numbers have a caveat, however, given that many segments of the population were disenfranchised from the electoral process. For much of American history, only white men could vote. While the 1876 election included both white and Black men, numbers could have been even higher without the immense voter suppression of Black Americans, and women could not yet vote.
As for modern history, the 2020 numbers have surpassed those from recent presidential elections. In the 2016 race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-candidate Donald Trump, the turnout rate was 60.2%. As for President Barack Obama's tenure, in 2008, when he ran against Senator John McCain, turnout was at 62.2%. In 2012, against Senator Mitt Romney, turnout was lower, at 58.6%.
Some of this year's high turnout may be attributed to the expansion of access to mail-in ballots and early voting, with many states changing their policies due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 million ballots were cast during the early voting period, a large increase from prior years.
