Zack Wittman for the Washington Post
Despite an especially polarized, bitter election season — with reports of voter suppression and misplaced ballots; the continued circulation of misinformation, including a misleading, preemptive declaration of victory by President Donald Trump; all cast in the lengthy shadow of the continued coronavirus pandemic — one radiant success shines cuts by the muck. An astounding sequence of of us turned out to cast their ballots and produce their voices heard, including a vital sequence of millennial and Gen Z voters.
Though ballots are still being counted in key battleground states, care for Pennsylvania and Michigan, to decide the final end result of a discontinuance bolt, voter turnout in 2020 has already exceeded that of the 2016 election. A projection by NBC Recordsdata on Wednesday morning (November 4) showed that as a minimum 159.8 million People voted, and over 100 million of these, representing bigger than 47 p.c of registered voters in the nation, had been cast sooner than Election Day. The projected vote would picture over 66.8 p.c voter turnout payment, a myth high amongst eligible voters since 1900.
But amongst the myth-makers are younger of us ages 18-29, a extremely efficient balloting bloc that comprises approximately 20 p.c of the close to 240 million eligible voters in the United States. Millennials, who are in general mistakenly derided by pundits for political apathy, beget increasingly participated in balloting since 2014, close to doubling participation by 2018 to 42 p.c. By closing count, close to 10 million younger of us beget voted, per the Heart for Records and Research on Civic Discovering out and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.
And whereas, total, younger of us in general lean blue — a Would possibly possibly well Pew Research Heart file acknowledged that 61 p.c of Gen Zers deliberate to vote Democrat, versus 22 p.c that supposed to vote Republican — that affiliation breaks down enormously across demographics of bolt and ethnicity. The voices of younger of us of color, in explicit, would possibly possibly beget the vitality to tip the scale one manner or the opposite, especially in fundamental swing states the assign votes are still being tallied.
In Arizona, a previously crimson train the assign Biden leads on the time of this writing, CIRCLE reports that younger, Latinx voters had been 17 p.c more seemingly than white youth to augment the outdated vp. In North Carolina and Georgia, younger, white voters voted for Trump, whereas 90 p.c of Dark youth voted for Biden. And though Texas went crimson, as in 2016, 91 p.c of Dark youth and 73 p.c of Latinx youth supported Biden.
So, it comes down to the closing few swing states the assign votes are currently being tallied, and all that’s left to map is wait. But no matter the final end result, one thing is definite: Young voters made their voices heard this election season.
