WITH THE COVID-19 pandemic making the very act of mingling with others a serious health risk, 2020 was shaping up as an election year with low turnout and voter engagement.
Instead, Americans are turning out in droves to cast early ballots – weeks before Election Day and in numbers that have experts predicting record-breaking turnout. As of Oct. 15, more than 18 million people had already voted, a number that represents 12.9% of the entire 2016 turnout with 19 days to go before Election Day. Individual states are reporting exponentially higher numbers of people asking for, and returning, absentee ballots.
That number is significantly higher than in this stage of the election in 2016: By the week ending Oct. 16, 2016, just 1.4 million Americans had voted early, according to tallies by the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project.
The reason, elections officials and experts say, is a flurry of steps taken by states to make it easier to register to vote and to cast a ballot. And while many of the steps were taken to address health worries during the pandemic, there is widespread belief that the changes will stay in place for future elections, perhaps permanently increasing turnout in a country that lags behind other developed nations in the percentage of people who participate in the most basic display of democracy.