Voter turnout in US elections is the total number of votes cast by the voting age population (VAP), or more recently, the voting eligible population (VEP), divided by the entire voting eligible population. It is usually displayed as a percentage, showing which percentage of eligible voters actually voted.
The historical trends in voter turnout in the United States presidential elections have been shaped by
Approximately 161 million people were registered to vote in the 2020 presidential election and roughly 96.3% ballots were submitted, totaling 158,427,986 votes. Roughly 81 million eligible voters did not cast a ballot. [3]
For many years, voter turnout was reported as a percentage; the numerator being the total votes cast, or the votes cast for the highest office, and the denominator being the Voting Age Population (VAP), the Census Bureau's estimate of the number of persons 18 years old and older resident in the United States. The VAP, however, includes people who are not actually eligible to vote, either because they are not US citizens, or because a prior felony conviction bars them from voting under the laws in their state. [4]
In their 2001 article in the American Political Science Review , Michael P. McDonald and Samuel Popkin developed a measure they called the Voting Eligible Population (VEP). The VEP uses "government statistical series to adjust for ineligible but included groups, such as noncitizens and felons, and eligible but excluded groups, such as overseas citizens." They argue that voter turnout in the United States has not actually declined since 1972 when calculated as a percentage of the VEP instead of the VAP. [5]
The following table shows the available data on turnout for the voting-age population (VAP) and the voting-eligible population (VEP) since 1932. [6] [7]
Election | Voting-age population (VAP) [8] | Voting-eligible population (VEP) [8] | Turnout [8] | Turnout as % of VAP [8] | Turnout as % of VEP [8] [9] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1932 | 75,768,000 | — | 39,816,522 | 52.6% | — |
1936 | 80,174,000 | — | 45,646,817 | 56.9% | — |
1940 | 84,728,000 | — | 49,815,312 | 58.8% | — |
1944 | 85,654,000 | — | 48,025,684 | 56.1% | — |
1948 | 95,573,000 | — | 48,833,680 | 51.1% | — |
1952 | 99,929,000 | — | 61,551,919 | 61.6% | — |
1956 | 104,515,000 | — | 62,027,040 | 59.3% | — |
1960 | 109,672,000 | — | 68,836,385 | 62.8% | — |
1964 | 114,090,000 | — | 70,097,935 | 61.4% | — |
1968 | 120,285,000 | — | 73,026,831 | 60.7% | — |
1972 | 140,777,000 | — | 77,625,152 | 55.1% | — |
1976 | 152,308,000 | — | 81,603,346 | 53.6% | — |
1980 | 163,945,000 | 159,635,102 | 86,496,851 | 52.8% | 54.2% |
1984 | 173,995,000 | 167,701,904 | 92,654,861 | 53.3% | 55.2% |
1988 | 181,956,000 | 173,579,281 | 91,586,725 | 50.3% | 52.8% |
1992 | 189,493,000 | 179,655,523 | 104,600,366 | 55.2% | 58.2% |
1996 | 196,789,000 | 186,347,044 | 96,389,818 | 49.0% | 51.7% |
2000 | 209,130,000 | 194,331,436 | 105,594,024 | 50.5% | 54.3% |
2004 | 219,508,000 | 203,483,455 | 122,349,480 | 55.7% | 60.1% |
2008 | 229,989,000 | 213,313,508 | 131,406,895 | 57.1% | 61.6% |
2012 | 240,177,000 | 222,474,111 | 129,139,997 | 53.8% | 58.0% |
2016 | 249,422,000 | 230,931,921 | 136,787,187 | 54.8% | 59.2% |
2020 | 252,274,000 | 240,628,443 | 158,427,986 | 62.8% | 65.8% |
2024* (estimated) [10] | 264,798,961 | 244,666,890 | 155,547,700 | 58.74% | 63.5% |
* 2024 numbers estimated by the Election Lab at the University of Florida. This estimate will be revised as additional data becomes available. [10]
The Constitution originally gave states the authority to decide who had the right to vote, and the power to decide the time place and manner of elections. Despite Constitutional amendments prohibiting restrictions of the franchise by race, sex, or against people over 18, and outlawing the poll tax, and other national legislation, states still administer voter registration and elections, in ways which can impact turnout, and variations in competitiveness between the states lead to variations in turnout.
State | Total ballots cast | Voting eligible population | 2020 general election turnout as a percentage of VEP |
---|---|---|---|
United States | 159,738,337 | 242,077,783 | 65.99% |
Alabama | 2,325,000 | 3,782,861 | 61.46% |
Alaska | 361,400 | 529,649 | 68.23% |
Arizona | 3,420,585 | 5,133,804 | 66.63% |
Arkansas | 1,223,675 | 2,178,328 | 56.17% |
California | 17,785,151 | 25,840,035 | 68.83% |
Colorado | 3,295,666 | 4,297,225 | 76.69% |
Connecticut | 1,861,086 | 2,655,214 | 70.09% |
Delaware | 509,241 | 745,131 | 68.34% |
District of Columbia | 346,491 | 503,118 | 68.87% |
Florida | 11,144,855 | 15,742,624 | 70.79% |
Georgia | 5,023,159 | 7,490,838 | 67.06% |
Hawaii | 579,784 | 1,047,466 | 55.35% |
Idaho | 878,527 | 1,352,914 | 64.94% |
Illinois | 6,050,000 | 9,095,238 | 66.52% |
Indiana | 3,068,542 | 5,025,421 | 61.06% |
Iowa | 1,700,130 | 2,360,125 | 72.04% |
Kansas | 1,375,125 | 2,112,458 | 65.10% |
Kentucky | 2,150,954 | 3,339,511 | 64.41% |
Louisiana | 2,169,401 | 3,382,286 | 64.14% |
Maine | 828,305 | 1,106,276 | 74.87% |
Maryland | 3,066,945 | 4,416,326 | 69.45% |
Massachusetts | 3,658,005 | 5,129,755 | 71.31% |
Michigan | 5,579,317 | 7,615,249 | 73.27% |
Minnesota | 3,292,997 | 4,157,411 | 79.21% |
Mississippi | 1,325,000 | 2,185,433 | 60.63% |
Missouri | 3,026,028 | 4,620,290 | 65.49% |
Montana | 612,075 | 857,955 | 71.34% |
Nebraska | 966,920 | 1,400,069 | 69.06% |
Nevada | 1,407,754 | 2,191,188 | 64.25% |
New Hampshire | 814,499 | 1,101,294 | 73.96% |
New Jersey | 4,635,585 | 6,435,019 | 72.04% |
New Mexico | 928,230 | 1,534,600 | 60.49% |
New York | 8,690,139 | 14,081,957 | 61.71% |
North Carolina | 5,545,848 | 7,811,002 | 71.00% |
North Dakota | 364,251 | 577,567 | 63.07% |
Ohio | 5,974,121 | 8,906,277 | 67.08% |
Oklahoma | 1,565,000 | 2,875,494 | 54.43% |
Oregon | 2,413,890 | 3,204,224 | 75.33% |
Pennsylvania | 6,958,551 | 9,950,392 | 69.93% |
Rhode Island | 522,488 | 828,194 | 63.09% |
South Carolina | 2,533,010 | 3,914,642 | 64.71% |
South Dakota | 427,529 | 651,554 | 65.62% |
Tennessee | 3,065,000 | 5,174,225 | 59.24% |
Texas | 11,350,000 | 18,982,171 | 59.79% |
Utah | 1,515,845 | 2,255,175 | 67.22% |
Vermont | 370,968 | 520,641 | 71.25% |
Virginia | 4,523,142 | 6,300,717 | 71.79% |
Washington | 4,116,894 | 5,465,496 | 75.33% |
West Virginia | 802,726 | 1,403,699 | 57.19% |
Wisconsin | 3,308,805 | 3,903,771 | 75.05% |
Wyoming | 278,503 | 430,161 | 64.74% |
The gradual expansion of the right to vote from only property-owning men to including all white men over 21 was an important movement in the period from 1800 to 1830. [13] Older states with property restrictions dropped them, namely all but Rhode Island, Virginia and North Carolina by the mid-1820s. No new states had property qualifications, although three had adopted tax-paying qualifications – Ohio, Louisiana and Mississippi, of which only in Louisiana were these significant and long-lasting. [14] The process was peaceful and widely supported, except in Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the demand for equal suffrage was broad and strong, although the subsequent reform included a significant property requirement for any resident born outside of the United States. However, free black men lost voting rights in several states during this period. [15]
The fact that a man was now legally allowed to vote did not necessarily mean he routinely voted. He had to be pulled to the polls, which became the most important role of the local parties. These parties systematically sought out potential voters and brought them to the polls. Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of the adult male population in the 1840 presidential election. [16] Tax-paying qualifications remained in only five states by 1860 –Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina. [17]
Another innovative strategy for increasing voter participation and input followed. Prior to the presidential election of 1832, the Anti-Masonic Party conducted the nation's first presidential nominating convention. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, September 26–28, 1831, it transformed the process by which political parties select their presidential and vice-presidential candidates. [18]
The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870 gave African American men the right to vote. The first record of a black man voting after the amendment's adoption was when Thomas Mundy Peterson cast his vote on March 31, 1870 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey in a referendum election, adopting a revised city charter. [19] During Reconstruction (1865–1877), sixteen black men served in Congress, and 2,000 black men served in elected local state and federal positions. [20] While this historic expansion of rights resulted in significant increases in the eligible voting population and may have contributed to the increases in the proportion of votes cast for president as a percentage of the total population during the 1870s, there does not seem to have been a significant long-term increase in the percentage of eligible voters who turn out for the poll. United States vs. Reese (1876), the first supreme court decision interpreting the fifteenth amendment, may have set the cause of African American male suffrage back again. In United States vs. Reese (1876), the supreme court upheld limitations on suffrage, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and a grandfather clause that exempted citizens from other voting requirements if their grandfathers had been registered voters. The Court also stated that the amendment "does not confer the right of suffrage to anyone," but it "invests citizens of the United States with the right of exemption from discrimination." [21] This subtle distinction between suffrage and the right to be exempt from discrimination may have legitimized the disenfranchisement of blacks. The disenfranchisement of most African Americans and many poor whites in the South during the years 1890–1910 likely contributed to the decline in overall voter turnout percentages during those years visible in the chart above.
There was no systematic collection of voter turnout data by gender at a national level before 1964, but smaller local studies indicate a low turnout among female voters in the years following women's suffrage in the United States. For example, a 1924 study of voter turnout in Chicago found that "female Chicagoans were far less likely to have visited the polls on Election Day than were men in both the 1920 presidential election (46% vs. 75%) and the 1923 mayoral contest (35% vs. 63%)." [22] The study compared reasons given by male and female non-voters and found that female non-voters were more likely to cite general indifference to politics and ignorance or timidity regarding elections than male non-voters, and that female voters were less likely to cite fear of loss of business or wages. Most significantly, however, 11% of female non-voters in the survey cited a "Disbelief in woman's voting" as the reason they did not vote.
With the exception of 1916, voter turnout declined in the decades preceding women's suffrage. [23] Despite this decline, from the 1900s until 1920, several states passed laws supporting women's suffrage. Women were granted the right to vote in Wyoming in 1869, before the territory had become a full state in the union. In 1889, when the Wyoming constitution was drafted in preparation for statehood, it included women's suffrage. Thus Wyoming was also the first full state to grant women the right to vote. [24] In 1893, Colorado was the first state to amend an existing constitution in order to grant women the right to vote, and several other states followed, including Utah and Idaho in 1896, Washington State in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Alaska and Illinois in 1913, Montana and Nevada in 1914, New York in 1917; Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma in 1918. [25] Each of these suffrage laws expanded the body of eligible voters, and because women were less likely to vote than men, each of these expansions created a decline in voter turnout rates, culminating with the extremely low turnouts in the 1920 and 1924 elections after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. [26]
The lack of systematic data tracking voter turnout in presidential elections before 1964 makes speculation on the voting gender gap before 1964 challenging. The data from 1964 indicates that the gender gap waned from 1964 until 1976. From 1976 onward, women have consistently turned out in higher numbers than men for presidential elections. [27]
Age, income, and educational attainment are significant factors affecting voter turnout. Educational attainment is perhaps the best predictor of voter turnout, and in the 2008 election, those holding advanced degrees were three times more likely to vote than those with less than high school education. Income correlated well with the likelihood of voting as well. [28] [29] The income correlation may be because of a correlation between income and educational attainment, rather than a direct effect of income. [30]
The age difference is associated with youth voter turnout. Some argue that "age is an important factor in understanding voting blocs and differences" on various issues. [31] Others argue that young people are typically "plagued" by political apathy and thus do not have strong political opinions. As strong political opinions may be considered one of the reasons behind voting, [32] political apathy among young people is arguably a predictor for low voter turnout. One study found that potential young voters are more willing to commit to voting when they see pictures of younger candidates running for elections/office or voting for other candidates, surmising that young Americans are "voting at higher and similar rates to other Americans when there is a candidate under the age of 35 years running". [33] As such, since most candidates running for office are pervasively over the age of 35 years, [34] youth may not be actively voting in these elections because of a lack of representation or visibility in the political process.
Recent decades have seen increasing concern over the fact that youth voter turnout is consistently lower than turnout among older generations. Several programs to increase the rates of voting among young people –such as MTV's "Rock the Vote" (founded in 1990) and the "Vote or Die" initiative (starting in 2004) –may have marginally increased turnouts of those between the ages of 18 and 25 to vote. However, the Stanford Social Innovation Review found no evidence of a decline in youth voter turnout. In fact, they argue that "Millennials are turning out at similar rates to the previous two generations when they face their first elections." [35]
Education is another factor considered to have a major impact on voter turnout rates. A study by Burman investigated the relationship between formal education levels and voter turnout. [36] This study demonstrated the effect of rising enrollment in college education circa 1980s, which resulted in an increase in voter turnout. However, "this was not true for political knowledge"; [36] a rise in education levels did not have any impact in identifying those with political knowledge (a signifier of civic engagement) until the 1980s election, when college education became a distinguishing factor in identifying civic participation. This article poses a multifaceted perspective on the effect of education levels on voter turnout. Based on this article, one may surmise that education has become a more powerful predictor of civic participation, discriminating more between voters and non-voters. However, this was not true for political knowledge; education levels were not a signifier of political knowledge. Gallego (2010) also contends that voter turnout tends to be higher in localities where voting mechanisms have been established and are easy to operate – i.e. voter turnout and participation tends to be high in instances where registration has been initiated by the state and the number of electoral parties is small.
One may contend that ease of access –and not education level –may be an indicator of voting behavior. Presumably larger, more urban cities will have greater budgets/resources/infrastructure dedicated to elections, which is why youth may have higher turnout rates in those cities versus more rural areas. Though youth in larger (that is, urban) cities tend to be more educated than those in rural areas (Marcus & Krupnick, 2017), perhaps there is an external variable (i.e. election infrastructure) at play. Smith and Tolbert's (2005) research reiterates that the presence of ballot initiatives and portals within a state have a positive effect on voter turnout. Another correlated finding in his study (Snyder, 2011) was that education is less important as a predictor of voter turnout in states than tend to spend more on education. Moreover, Snyder's (2011) research suggests that students are more likely to vote than non-students. It may be surmised that an increase of state investment in electoral infrastructure facilitates and education policy and programs results in increase voter turnout among youth.
Wealthier people tend to vote at higher rates. Harder and Krosnick (2008) contend that some of the reasons for this may be due to "differences in motivation or ability (sometimes both)" (Harder and Krosnick, 2008), or that less wealthy people have less energy, time, or resources to allot towards voting. Another potential reason may be that more affluent people believe they have more at stake if they don't vote than those with less income.
Since 1980, the voting gender gap has completely reversed, with a higher proportion of women voting than men in each of the last nine presidential elections. The Center for American Women and Politics summarizes how this trend can be measured differently both in terms of proportion of voters to non-voters, and in terms of the bulk number of votes cast. "In every presidential election since 1980, the proportion of eligible female adults who voted has exceeded the proportion of eligible male adults who voted [...]. In all presidential elections prior to 1980, the voter turnout rate for women was lower than the rate for men. The number of female voters has exceeded the number of male voters in every presidential election since 1969..." [37] This gender gap has been a determining factor in several recent presidential elections, as women have been consistently about 15% more likely to support the candidate of the Democratic Party than the Republican candidate in each election since 1996. [38]
Race and ethnicity has had an effect on voter turnout in recent years, with data from recent elections such as 2008 showing much lower turnout among people identifying as Hispanic or Asian ethnicity than other voters (see chart to the right). One factor impacting voter turnout of Black Americans is that, as of the 2000 election, 13% of Black American males are reportedly ineligible to vote nationwide because of a prior felony conviction; in certain states – Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi – disenfranchisement rates for Black American males in the 2000 election were around 30%. [39]
Another factor influencing statistics on voter turnout is the percentage of the country's voting-age population[ clarification needed ] who are ineligible to vote due to non-citizen status or prior felony convictions. In a 2001 article in the American Political Science Review , Michael P. McDonald and Samuel Popkin argued, that at least in the United States, voter turnout since 1972 has not actually declined when calculated for those eligible to vote, what they term the voting-eligible population. [40] [ clarification needed ] In 1972, noncitizens and ineligible felons (depending on state law) constituted about 2% of the voting-age population. By 2004, ineligible voters constituted nearly 10%. [41] Ineligible voters are not evenly distributed across the country. For example, roughly 15% of California's voting-age population is ineligible to vote, which confounds comparisons of states. [42]
The 1788–89 United States presidential election was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Wednesday, January 7, 1789, under the new Constitution ratified that same year. George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president and John Adams became the first vice president. This was the only U.S. presidential election that spanned two calendar years without a contingent election and the first national presidential election in American history.
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums. In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage.
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford University political scientists Adam Bonica and Michael McFaul, there is a consensus among political scientists that "democracies perform better when more people vote."
Voting rights, specifically enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, have been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.
Two central issues for democracies are the right to candidate, and suffrage or the franchise—that is, the decision as to who is entitled to vote. For example, Athenian democracy limited the vote to male citizens, while slaves, foreigners, and women of any status were excluded. Requirements and exclusions such as these, along with racial prohibitions, have been common in democracies. The definition of legal personhood has been historically tied up with these questions.
Elections in Chile are held nationwide, including the presidency, parliament, regional offices, and municipal positions. Chilean citizens and foreign residents with legal residency of at least five years, who are 18 years or older on election day, are eligible to vote. Previously, voting was voluntary, but since 2023, it has become compulsory.
The youth vote in the United States is the cohort of 18–24 year-olds as a voting demographic, though some scholars define youth voting as voters under 30. Many policy areas specifically affect the youth of the United States, such as education issues and the juvenile justice system; however, young people also care about issues that affect the population as a whole, such as national debt and war.
All U.S. states and territories, except North Dakota, require voter registration by eligible citizens before they can vote in federal, state and local elections. In North Dakota, cities in the state may register voters for city elections, and in other cases voters must provide identification and proof of entitlement to vote at the polling place before being permitted to vote. Voter registration takes place at the county level in many states or at the municipal level in several states. Many states set cutoff dates for registration or to update details, ranging from two to four weeks before an election, while 25 states and Washington, D.C. have same-day voter registration, which enables eligible citizens to register or update their registration on the same day they cast their vote. In states that permit early voting, and have voter registration, the prospective voter must be registered before casting a vote.
Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era in the United States, especially in the Southern United States, was based on a series of laws, new constitutions, and practices in the South that were deliberately used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting. These measures were enacted by the former Confederate states at the turn of the 20th century. Efforts were also made in Maryland, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Their actions were designed to thwart the objective of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, which prohibited states from depriving voters of their voting rights based on race. The laws were frequently written in ways to be ostensibly non-racial on paper, but were implemented in ways that selectively suppressed black voters apart from other voters.
In political science, political apathy is a lack of interest or apathy towards politics. This includes voter apathy, information apathy and lack of interest in elections, political events, public meetings, and voting.
The election of the president and for vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the Electoral College. These electors then cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for president and for vice president. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for president, the House of Representatives elects the president; likewise if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for vice president, then the Senate elects the vice president.
The Latino vote or refers to the voting trends during elections in the United States by eligible voters of Latino background. This phrase is usually mentioned by the media as a way to label voters of this ethnicity, and to opine that this demographic group could potentially tilt the outcome of an election, and how candidates have developed messaging strategies to this ethnic group.
Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote. Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination. After the American Civil War, all African-American men were granted voting rights, but poll taxes or language tests were used to limit and suppress the ability to register or cast a ballot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 improved voting access. Since the beginning of voter suppression efforts, proponents of these laws have cited concerns over electoral integrity as a justification for various restrictions and requirements, while opponents argue that these constitute bad faith given the lack of voter fraud evidence in the United States.
The term 'political participation' has a very wide meaning. It is not only related to 'Right to Vote', but simultaneously relates to participation in: decision-making process, political activism, political consciousness, etc. Women in India participate in voting, run for public offices and political parties at lower levels more than men. Political activism and voting are the strongest areas of women's political participation. To combat gender inequality in politics, the Indian Government has instituted reservations for seats in local governments.
This is a timeline of voting rights in the United States, documenting when various groups in the country gained the right to vote or were disenfranchised.
Women's suffrage was granted in Virginia in 1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The General Assembly, Virginia's governing legislative body, did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1952. The argument for women's suffrage in Virginia began in 1870, but it did not gain traction until 1909 with the founding of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. Between 1912 and 1916, Virginia's suffragists would bring the issue of women's voting rights to the floor of the General Assembly three times, petitioning for an amendment to the state constitution giving women the right to vote; they were defeated each time. During this period, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and its fellow Virginia suffragists fought against a strong anti-suffragist movement that tapped into conservative, post-Civil War values on the role of women, as well as racial fears. After achieving suffrage in August 1920, over 13,000 women registered within one month to vote for the first time in the 1920 United States presidential election.
The 1924 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary forty-eight states. Voters chose twelve representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1920 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary forty-eight states. Voters chose twelve representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Native Americans in the United States have had a unique history in their ability to vote and participate in United States elections and politics. Native Americans have been allowed to vote in United States elections since the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, but were historically barred in different states from doing so. After a long history of fighting against voting rights restrictions, Native Americans now play an increasingly integral part in United States elections. They have been included in more recent efforts by political campaigns to increase voter turnout. Such efforts have borne more notable fruit since the 2020 U.S. presidential election, when Native American turnout was attributed to the historic flipping of the state of Arizona, which had not voted for the Democratic Party since the 1996 U.S. presidential election.
Voting Age Population is typically calculated based on census data ('resident population [21 or 18] years and older'). Voting Eligible Population is an attempt to more precisely determine the size of the U.S. electorate, by counting only those Americans who have a legal right to vote. The estimates of noncitizen residents and disenfranchised felons have been carried out mostly by Professor Michael McDonald.