60.2% of us voting eligible population (vep) voted in 2016 presidential election.
what percentage of us voting eligible population(vep) voted in 2016 presidential election?
60.2%
based on united states census bureau estimates of the voting age population (vap), turnout of voters casting a vote for president was nearly 1% higher than 2012. examining overall turnout in the 2016 election, university of florida prof. michael mcdonald estimated that 138.8 million americans cast a ballot. 65.9 million of those ballots were counted for clinton and just under 63 million for trump, representing 20.3% (clinton) and 19.4% (trump) of a census estimate of u.s. population that day of 324 million. considering a vap of 250.6 million people and voting eligible population (vep) of 230.6 million people, this is a turnout rate of 55.4% vap and 60.2% vep. based on this estimate, voter turnout was up compared to 2012 (54.1% vap) but down compared to 2008 (57.4% vap). a fec report of the election recorded an official total of 136.7 million votes cast for president — more than any prior election.
2016 united states presidential election
for the denominator, it is often assumed that the number of eligible voters was well defined, but again, this is not the case. in the united states, for example, there is no accurate registry of exactly who is eligible to vote, since only about 70–75% of people choose to register themselves. thus, turnout has to be calculated based on population estimates. some political scientists have argued that these measures do not properly account for the large number of illegal aliens, disenfranchised felons and persons who are considered 'mentally incompetent' in the united states, and that american voter turnout is higher than is normally reported. professor michael p. mcdonald constructed an estimation of the turnout against the 'voting eligible population' (vep), instead of the 'voting age population' (vap). for the american presidential elections of 2004, turnout could then be expressed as 60.32% of vep, rather than 55.27% of vap.
voter turnout