Voter turnout in United States presidential elections

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/voter-turnout-in-united-states-presidential-elections

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the 2020 presidential election turnout rate (VEP)?Approximately 66.8% of the voting-eligible population
2. What is the estimated number of non-voters in 2020?Around 81 million eligible voters did not cast a ballot
3. What does voter turnout mean in a presidential election?Voter turnout is the percentage of people who actually go to the polls to vote, compared to all the people who can vote.
4. Why did more people get to vote over time?Laws and movements, like the 19th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act, added more people to the list of people allowed to vote, so more grown‑ups could participate.

Voter turnout: The percentage of eligible citizens who cast a ballot in a given election.
Voting-eligible population (VEP): The subset of the voting-age population that is legally permitted to vote.
Suffrage: The right to vote in political elections.
Voter registration: The process by which citizens sign up to become eligible to vote.