Thread by @ElectProject

I posted PRELIMINARY estimates of the 2020 state and national turnout and voting-eligible population turnout rates

160 million people voted

Turnout rate: 66.9%

Highest turnout rate since 1900: 73.7%

electproject.org/2020g

That is not a typo. The 2020 presidential election had the highest turnout rate in 120 years. There is still a fair amount of guesswork involving outstanding ballots to be counted. I will continue to refine these estimates over the coming weeks

2020's turnout in historical perspective. Highest in a 120 years, but not an all-time high

Why was turnout even higher in the 1800's? Hard to say since surveys hadn't been invented yet. I chalk it up to a society much different. As de Tocqueville noted, we were a nation of joiners. Politics and political parties were a part of the social fabric of the nation

Look, folks arguing the franchise was limited in the 1800's. I get your argument and am very sympathetic to it, but it isn't a good explanation for turnout rate differences. Today, women have higher turnout rates than men; African-Americans have slightly lower rates than Whites

And the political machines did exist, and are likely an important part of the reason why society was different in the 1800s, but there is lots of historical research that shows the machines were not nearly as pervasive as the modern straw man characterization