How many american vote in elections

1. What “how many Americans vote” usually means — votes, voters, or turnout rate

When reporters say “how many Americans vote” they can mean raw votes cast, the percentage of all adults who voted (Voting Age Population, VAP), the percentage of citizens eligible to vote (Voting Eligible Population, VEP), or the share of registered voters who voted; each yields different answers and each is widely used by scholars and officials ^{[4] [5]}. The U.S. House Clerk’s certified vote totals provide the authoritative raw counts of votes cast in presidential contests (used by repositories like The American Presidency Project), while researchers frequently prefer VEP because VAP includes noncitizens and ineligible people and can understate true participation among eligible voters ^{[4] [5]}.

2. Recent presidential elections: raw totals and percentiles

Pew and other tabulations put the 2020 vote total at more than 158.4 million ballots cast, which amounted to roughly 62.8% of the voting-age population by Census estimates, and Pew found 2020’s turnout (66% by some validated-voter measures) was the highest since 1908 with 2024 at about 64% in Pew’s analysis and 65.3% voting per the Census Bureau’s post‑2024 tables ^{[1] [6] [2]}. Those differences reflect methodology — Pew’s validated-voter approach, Census survey tables and national certified tallies each use slightly different denominators and validation steps, but they converge on the plain fact that roughly two-thirds of Americans vote in presidential years ^{[6] [2] [1]}.

3. Midterms and the long tail: lower participation and meaningful swings

Midterm turnout is materially lower: Pew’s analysis shows 2022 turnout near 46% — still high by recent midterm standards but far below presidential levels — and scholars emphasize that intermittent voters who participate in some elections but not others often decide close contests ^[3]. The U.S. Election Project and academic repositories track long-term trends and show clear cyclical differences between presidential and midterm years, with presidential elections habitually pulling a substantially larger raw number and share of voters ^{[7] [8]}.

4. Who votes — demographic and geographic variation

Turnout is not uniform: turnout is higher among older, white and college‑educated voters and lower among younger and some minority groups, with documented gaps by race, education and state (for example, 2024 citizen turnout varied markedly by race and by state) — these patterns are tracked in Census and state-level breakdowns and summarized by analysts like USAFacts and Rutgers’ CAWP ^{[2] [9] [10]}. State rules (same‑day registration, mail voting, voter ID) and partisan mobilization strategies also shape who shows up at higher rates, which is why seven of the top 10 states by citizen turnout in 2024 voted for one major party while many low-turnout states favored the other ^[9].

5. Why the numbers differ and the limits of existing reporting

Different official sources and research teams provide slightly different turnout figures because of choices about denominators (VAP vs VEP vs registered), survey over‑reporting of voting, timing of data updates, and state certification practices — the UF Election Lab, Census, Pew and the US House Clerk each explain these methodological differences and caution readers that comparisons require care ^{[8] [4] [11]}. Where sources do not agree, reporting should transparently show which measure is being used rather than implying a single definitive turnout rate ^{[4] [8]}.

6. Bottom line

For a quick, defensible answer: in presidential years about two‑thirds of Americans of voting age vote (roughly 150–160+ million people in absolute terms in recent cycles), while midterms draw roughly the mid‑40s percent of the voting‑age or voting‑eligible population; the precise percentage depends on whether analysts use VAP, VEP, or registered voters as the denominator ^{[1] [2] [3]}.