Voter Turnout in Midterm Elections Hits 72Year Low
The last time voter turnout for a national election was as low as it was on Nov.4, Hitler was still in power, and Mitch McConnell was only nine months old. Only 36.4 of eligible voters voted in this year's midterm elections, down from 40.9 who voted in 2010, according to preliminary analysis by Michael McDonald at the University of Florida. The last time voter turnout was that low was 1942, when only 33.9 of voters cast ballots, according to the United States Elections Project. That was also a year that the U.S. established the European Theater of Operations in WWII, so a large share of the voting population was a little busy doing other things. Voter turnout in presidential elections is historically much higher than in midterms 58.2 of eligible voters voted in 2012, and 61.6 voted in 2008, the highest turnout since 1968. In other words, turnout for Obama's first presidential election was almost double the 2014 midterm turnout.