Honestly, the numbers from the last few years feel a bit like a blur, but 2020 was something else entirely. We all remember the masks, the long lines, and that weirdly quiet tension in the air. But when you look at the raw data, the total number of voters in 2020 tells a story that's way more interesting than just a simple count of heads. It was a massive, record-shattering moment for American democracy.
People actually showed up.
Despite a literal global pandemic and all the chaos that came with it, about 158.4 million people cast a ballot. That is a staggering number. If you want to get technical, the U.S. Census Bureau clocked it slightly differently in their supplemental surveys, citing about 154.6 million people who reported voting, but the official tally of submitted ballots settled around that 158 million mark.
Why the total number of voters in 2020 broke the records
For decades, voter turnout in the U.S. was... well, kinda meh. We usually hovered around the mid-50s in terms of percentage. But 2020 blew the doors off. We hit a 66.8% turnout rate among the citizen voting-age population. That’s the highest we’ve seen since 1900. Think about that for a second. We hadn't seen participation like that since the era of the horse and buggy and before women even had the right to vote nationwide.
Why did everyone suddenly decide to weigh in?
It wasn't just one thing. It was a perfect storm. States basically overhauled how they did elections overnight because of COVID-19. They sent out mail-in ballots like candy. They expanded early voting windows. Suddenly, you didn't have to choose between your job and your civic duty. You could vote from your kitchen table while eating cereal.
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In fact, almost 70% of voters used these "nontraditional" methods. About 43% voted by mail, and another 26% voted early in person. Only about 30% actually walked into a polling place on Tuesday, November 3rd. That is a wild flip from 2016, where most people still did the traditional Election Day trek.
The demographics that shifted the needle
It wasn't just the "usual suspects" voting, either. We saw huge jumps in groups that historically stayed home.
- Young Voters: People aged 18 to 24 are notorious for not showing up. In 2020, their turnout jumped to 51.4%. Still lower than the seniors, sure, but a massive increase from previous years.
- Asian American Voters: This group saw an all-time high turnout of 59.7%.
- Hispanic Voters: For the first time, Hispanic voters made up more than 10% of the total electorate.
Seniors (the 65 to 74 crowd) still held the crown with a 76% turnout rate. They always show up. It’s basically their superpower. But the real story was the 17 million extra people who voted compared to 2016. That’s like the entire population of the Netherlands deciding to join the party all at once.
Digging into the state-by-state chaos
Not every state played the same game. If you lived in Minnesota, you were part of the gold standard. They hit a nearly 80% turnout rate. On the flip side, Arkansas was at the bottom of the list, hovering around 54%.
It’s kinda fascinating how much geography matters. States with "all-mail" systems, like Washington and Oregon, consistently see higher numbers. When you make it easy, people do it. Shocking, right?
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The competition was also a huge factor. If you lived in a "swing state" like Arizona or Georgia, you couldn't turn on your TV without seeing a campaign ad. Arizona’s turnout jumped from 60% in 2016 to over 72% in 2020. People felt like their individual vote actually mattered for the first time in a long time.
What about the people who stayed home?
Even with record numbers, there were still millions who didn't participate. About 25.8 million eligible citizens weren't even registered.
When the Census asked why, the most common answer wasn't "I couldn't get there" or "I was sick." It was "I’m just not interested." About 17.6% of non-voters basically just shrugged. Another 15% said they flat-out didn't like the candidates.
Interestingly, only about 4% of registered non-voters said COVID-19 concerns were the primary reason they stayed away. For all the talk about the pandemic depressing the vote, it seems the opposite happened: the response to the pandemic (mail-in ballots) made it easier than ever.
Comparing 2020 to the 2024 landscape
Now that we’ve seen the 2024 numbers, 2020 looks even more like a historical outlier. In 2024, the turnout rate dipped slightly to around 64%. Still high by 20th-century standards, but the "pandemic boost" definitely wore off a bit.
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Joe Biden pulled in over 81 million votes in 2020—the most ever for a presidential candidate. Donald Trump pulled in 74 million, which was also a record for a sitting president. It was a high-stakes, high-volume collision.
The total number of voters in 2020 didn't just decide who sat in the Oval Office; it proved that the American electorate isn't as apathetic as we thought. When people feel the stakes are life-and-death, and when you give them a way to vote that doesn't involve a four-hour wait in the rain, they’ll show up in droves.
What we can learn from the data
If you’re looking to understand where we go from here, keep these takeaways in mind:
- The "Convenience Factor" is king. The more states lean into early voting and mail-in options, the higher the floor for turnout will be.
- Education matters. There is still a massive gap between college-educated voters (nearly 80% turnout) and those with a high school diploma or less (around 55-60%).
- The youth are waking up. They still vote less than their grandparents, but the 10-point jump in 2020 shows the "sleeping giant" is starting to stir.
If you want to dive deeper into your own local data, check out the U.S. Election Project or the Census Bureau’s Voting and Registration reports. They break it down by zip code and demographic in ways that are honestly a little addictive if you’re a data nerd. Knowing these numbers helps us understand not just who won, but who we are as a country.
Check your current registration status at Vote.gov to make sure you’re ready for the next round. You can also look up your state’s specific "Voter Turnout Report" on your Secretary of State’s website to see how your neighbors compared to the national average.