The Covid-19 Pandemic and the year 2020 as a whole, has encouraged individuals across America to become more politically active. This election year has been a game changer in terms of democratic participation, resulting in groundbreaking amounts of people going out and voting, much more than past years.
As the 2020 election is underway, record breaking amounts of votes have been counted and accounted for, setting an all time high record for ballots cast. More Americans have voted- and voted by mail- in the 2020 election than in any other past election the history of the U.S. The voter turnout in many states has surpassed the average amount in many years past. According to NBC News projections, at least 159.8 million Americans showed up to the polls this year or sent in their mail in ballots. In the 2016 election, only 138 million Americans casted their vote. CNBC stated that this election year has had the highest voter turnout rate, among eligible citizens, a total of 66.8% and resulting in breaking the 120-year old voter record. This breakthrough is traditionally uncommon, as the U.S tends to have very poor voter turnout in comparison to other countries in the world. To set another record, the Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, broke the record for number of votes ever cast for a U.S Presidential candidate. It was within the battleground states where voter turnout was the highest, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia. The Washington Post declared that Texas broke its 1992 record by over five percentage points, while Minnesota turnout reached just about 80%.
"More Americans have voted- and voted by mail- in the 2020 election than in any other past election the history of the U.S."
Despite the many obstacles that the pandemic placed on voters this election year, political activeness has expanded. So what exactly caused such a turning point in democratic participation? Would it be the mail in ballots caused by the pandemic, is it the fear of this virus we are living through, or is it this year’s presidential election itself? Statistics and analytics have proved that a greater voter turnout could be due to the fact that many states expanded main-in and in-person early voting. Throughout many college campuses and universities, participation in the election and casting a vote has been many students' main focus for the past few weeks, although traditionally young voter turnout is on the lower side. The New York Times concluded that student voting has surged and throughout the election, was on the rise. Debate Zoom watch parties became ever more common and social media platforms were transformed into a basis to encourage voting amongst fellow followers. Students at the University of Pittsburgh, registered new voters via Zoom, while many other universities are coming up with their own creative ways to energize new voters. Considering the fact that many students are not physically on their university campus, students have turned to the internet and social media to participate politically in this year's election, which may prove to forever change how word of the vote gets out. Such statistics and numbers indicate that things may be changing. 2020 may forever be known in history as the year of a worldwide pandemic, massive Australian wildfires, the impeachment of the U.S President, but more importantly...2020 will become the year of the vote.
"2020 will become the year of the vote."
Written by: Emma Williams