The numbers in this chart are from the United States Election Project.I have posted before about the pitiful turnout in Texas on election day this year. Only a shameful 33% of the registered voters in the state bothered to vote, making it the state with the worst turnout of registered voters. Now I learn that Texas was not alone in having a poor turnout.
The PBS Newshour has gotten statistics from the University of Florida's United States Election Project (USEP), and it turns out that the nation as a whole had a rather pitiful turnout of only 36.4%. That's the lowest turnout since 1942 -- seventy years ago.
The USEP didn't just look at registered voters. They based their numbers on the voting-eligible population of each state (whether registered or not). This is a more stringent method of figuring turnout.
Still, there were a few states that did pretty well in turning out voters -- with seven states having a turnout of over 50% (with Maine at 59.3% and Wisconsin at 56.9% leading the way). I personally think this turnout is still too low for a democracy, but it looks damn good when compared to the national average.
Meanwhile, other states did very poorly -- with seven states unable to even get 30% of the eligible voters to the polls (with Indiana at 28% and Texas at 28.5% being the states with the lowest turnout). The 10 states with the highest and lowest turnouts are listed below:
10 Highest Voter Participation States of 2014:
1. Maine 59.3%
2. Wisconsin 56.9%
3. Alaska 55.3%
4. Colorado 53%
5. Oregon 52.7%
6. Minnesota 51.3%
7. Iowa 50.6%
8. New Hampshire 48.8%
9. Montana 46.1%
10. South Dakota 44.6%
10 Lowest Voter Participation States of 2014:
1. Indiana 28%
2. Texas 28.5%
3. Utah 28.8%
4. Tennessee 29.1%
5. New York 29.5%
6. Mississippi 29.7%
7. Oklahoma 29.8%
8. DC 30.3%
9. New Jersey 30.4%
10. Tie-West Virginia/Nevada 31.8
