US presidential election ‘sees highest voter turnout in 102 years’

An estimated 160 million people – including these voters in Austin, Texas – will cast their ballots in the US presidential election – the highest turnout for a presidential election since 1908 (Picture: Getty)

This year’s US presidential election saw 67% of all eligible voters turn out to cast their ballot – the highest turnout since 1908. University of Florida Professor Michael P McDonald has forecast 160 million ballots being cast in this year’s contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

That will mark the first time since 1908 that voter turnout has passed 65%. McDonald told The New York Times: ‘We’ve been in this really narrow trading range ever since then. We’ve never reached back to those 1800s levels. Maybe this is the election we do that in. That would be astounding.’

More than 100 million votes were cast early in this year’s election because of the coronavirus outbreak. The 2020 campaign was one of the most dramatic in history, with tens of millions of voters mobilized to try and unseat Donald Trump.

But the incumbent president’s incredibly loyal base appear to have responded to that challenge by turning out to vote for him in their droves. Trump has held states including Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and West Virginia.

Meanwhile, Biden has held states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016, including Virginia, Rhode Island, Maine, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut.