Voter Turnout

State-level and national turnout rates from 1980 to 2024. VEP (Voting-Eligible Population) is the preferred measure — it removes non-citizens and ineligible felons from the denominator, giving a truer picture of who actually voted among those who legally could.

Source: Michael McDonald, University of Florida — United States Elections Project (USEIT) · Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution License

Election Year Presidential

National VEP Turnout

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Voting-eligible population

Highest State

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Lowest State

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Range (High − Low)

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Percentage points

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State

2024 National VEP

64.3%

156.8M ballots cast

Highest Presidential

66.0%

2020 — Biden vs. Trump

Lowest Midterm

36.6%

2014 — lowest since 1942

Pres. vs. Midterm Gap

~22 pts

Avg. difference since 1998

National VEP Turnout Rate — 1998 to 2024

Presidential election

Midterm election

National Turnout by Election Year 1998–2024 (national data unavailable before 1998)

Year	Type	VEP Turnout	VAP Turnout	Total Ballots (M)

National VEP adds overseas eligible citizens to the denominator (state VEP does not). Pre-2010: national total ballots estimated from ratio of total ballots to highest-office votes in reporting states. Data before 1998 excluded — too many states unreported for reliable national aggregation. Source: McDonald (2024), USEIT / University of Florida.