page_title: Voter turnout in the United States presidential elections
hierarchical_section_title: Voter turnout in the United States presidential elections
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. popular vote for president as a percentage share of the total U.S. population. Population totals from the U.S. Census Bureau. Vote totals from U.S. Election Atlas.
context_page_description: The historical trends in voter turnout in the United States presidential elections have been determined by the gradual expansion of voting rights from the initial restriction to male property owners aged twenty-one or older in the early years of the country's independence, to all citizens aged eighteen or older in the mid-twentieth century. Voter turnout in United States presidential elections has historically been better than the turnout for midterm elections.
context_section_description: The historical trends in voter turnout in the United States presidential elections have been determined by the gradual expansion of voting rights from the initial restriction to male property owners aged twenty-one or older in the early years of the country's independence, to all citizens aged eighteen or older in the mid-twentieth century. Voter turnout in United States presidential elections has historically been better than the turnout for midterm elections.
caption: U.S. presidential election popular vote totals as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Note the surge in 1828 (extension of suffrage to non-property-owning white men), the drop from 1890–1910 (when Southern states disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites), and another surge in 1920 (extension of suffrage to women). This chart represents the number of votes cast as a percentage of total population, and does not compare either of those quantities with the percentage of the population that was eligible to vote.
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