GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s time for ‘My 2 Cents.’
The 2020 election is underway. North Carolina was the first state in the country to send out absentee ballots and early voting has been going on for almost two weeks. Election Day is just eight days away.
And people are really getting out to vote.
Across the nation more people have already voted this year than they did at the same time in 2016. Early voting numbers are high. At last check more than 56 million Americans had cast their ballots.
The U.S. Elections Project says 240 million citizens are eligible to vote. They project 85 million of them will vote before Election Day and 150 million total people will vote in this election. That’s 62% of eligible voters. If this trend continues, this could be the highest percentage of voters to actually vote since 1908.
The highest eligible voter turnout in history was in 1876. Almost 83% of people cast a ballot in the race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tiden. But in the last 50 years, the highest turnout was in 2008: 61.65% of eligible voters. A statistic we could pass this year.
If you log on to social media you know people are passionate about this year’s election. And while we don’t always love to hear about that enthusiasm in a strongly worded post or political ads. But I think we can all agree that it’s a good thing that more people are voting and making their voices heard.