Rochester political scientists explain why people do and don’t exercise their right to vote—and the implications of that choice for democracy.
It’s election season, when candidate lawn signs sprout in yards and political messaging seeps into news feeds. With early voting underway in a contentious presidential race, many Americans are preparing to visit their polling place to cast their ballot (and score their “I Voted” sticker). Some will party (or not) like it’s 1907, if one can trust the Election Night in the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester.
Yet for other voters, Election Day is just another Tuesday.
What does voter turnout mean?
Technically, “voter turnout is the number of people who cast ballots in any given election,” says Mayya Komisarchik, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Rochester.
In the United States, the voting-eligible population comprises citizens of the right age, who are not convicted of a felony—though this depends on state law—and not mentally incapacitated. “But it’s hard to get that granular with numbers, so the voter turnout rate is typically calculated as the number of ballots cast divided by the voting-age population,” she says. “If high turnout is the harbinger of a healthy democracy, we want a high percentage of voter turnout.”
Since 1980, voter turnout for US presidential elections has fluctuated between 50 to 65 percent of eligible voters—with the exception of 2020, when it reached a record high of 67 percent. (Midterm elections draw significantly fewer voters.)
“If high turnout is the harbinger of a healthy democracy, we want a high percentage of voter turnout.”
“Turnout in the US is not super-high relative to other democracies, like in Australia, where voting is compulsory with a fine for not participating,” says Komisarchik.
Even without a slap on the wrist, why aren’t more US citizens voting?
“Given that we’re talking about 51 different electoral systems (each state plus Washington DC) with multi-pronged processes, various restrictions, and lots of contestation, the voter turnout rate doesn’t surprise me,” says James Druckman, the Martin Brewer Anderson Professor of Political Science. “States vary dramatically in terms of their registration laws, early voting policies, access to polls, even when absentee ballots are counted.”
Scheduling is also a factor: In some places, local elections are timed to coincide with midterm or presidential ones, while in other places they are staggered in different years.
Add to this tangle the country’s history of constricted ballot access and voter suppression, through legal means and otherwise: literacy tests with subjective scoring, character witnesses (also subjective), and recent challenges to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. The finer points of “electioneering” can even penalize distributing water at a polling line.
In the lead-up to Election Day, here are several key points about voter turnout and why it’s important.
Voter “decline” is often really voter disenfranchisement.
Extending the franchise—or giving more people the right to vote—is one way to influence voter turnout.
In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution acknowledged the right of formerly enslaved African American men to vote. Fifty years later, in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, legally guaranteeing American women the right to vote, a longstanding goal of the women’s suffrage movement. (Susan B. Anthony was a key player in the movement. On November 5, 1872—well before the 19th Amendment’s ratification—Anthony marched to the polls near her home in Rochester, New York, demanding to vote in the presidential election. She cast her vote, but was subsequently arrested, charged, and indicted.)
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