INSTITUTE INDEX: Turnout surged where campaigns targeted unlikely voters

By Sue Sturgis / November 15, 2018

March On, a political organization comprised of women-led and grassroots activist groups that grew out of the women's marches of January 2017, held a March on the Polls in Atlanta last month to encourage people to vote. It was part of a broader organizing effort that resulted in record-smashing turnout for a midterm election in several Southern states, including Georgia. (Photo by John Ramspott via Flickr.)

Percent of the U.S. voting-eligible population that cast ballots in the recent midterm election, according to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida: 49

The last time turnout was so high in a midterm: 1914

Average percent turnout for midterms: about 40

Percent turnout in the 2014 midterms, which was the lowest since World War II: 37

Number of states where 2018 turnout was up by more than 15 percent over 2014 levels: 8

Of those eight states, number in the South: 3

Percent by which turnout increased in Virginia, the Southern state that saw the biggest jump amid a U.S. Senate race that pitted neo-Confederate Republican Corey Stewart against incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine, who won in a landslide, and that last year experienced a blue wave election amid a surge in progressive organizing following President Trump's election: 17.8

Percent by which turnout increased this year in Texas, where there was a high-profile U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Ted Cruz, who narrowly won, and progressive Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, whose campaign focused on grassroots organizing: 17.5

Percent by which it rose in Georgia, where there's a still-unsettled gubernatorial race between Republican Brian Kemp, who controversially oversaw the election as secretary of state, and Democrat Stacey Abrams, a longtime voting rights activist who like O'Rourke targeted low-propensity voters: 16.4

Percent of Georgia's eligible voters who cast ballots in the November election: 55

Percentage points by which that exceeds the state's average midterm turnout from 1982 to 2014: about 21

Rank of Georgia among the states that saw the biggest change from average this year: 1

(Click on figure to go to source.)

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