Protesters gather on Boston Common to demand that every vote be counted a day after presidential elections were held in the US. Photo: Jodi Hilton/NurPhoto via Getty Images
This year's turnout rate of the voting-eligible population eclipsed elections in most Americans' lifetimes, per the Washington Post.
The big picture: The latest figure (61.7%) stands only a few points away from breaking a 60-year-old record set in 1960 (63.8%).
- If the current projection of 66.4% holds, 2020 turnout will be the highest since 1900, when 73.7% of eligible Americans cast ballots: "But America had a much smaller voting pool over a century ago. Women did not yet have the right to vote, nor did Asian Americans and many Native Americans," the Post notes.
- Records from 1980 were broken in at least 31 states.
Go deeper: Graphic showing turnout rates, 1789-2018.