US election turn-out hits 50-year high

Joe Biden named as record-setter in encouraging Americans to head to the polls

President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation at the Chase Center on November 7 (Getty Images)

More than 148 million votes have been counted so far in this year’s US election of which 75 million popular votes were cast for Joe Biden – a 50-year high in the country’s history.

As of Sunday, votes counted represent 62 per cent of eligible voters, according to the US Elections Project, a four per cent increase on the previous record was set by Barack Obama in 2008, when his landslide win against Republican candidate John McCain saw him scoop 69.5 million votes.

By contrast, Mr Trump received more than 70 million votes, which is the highest total for a losing candidate.

The previous record was set by Mr Trump’s former opposing candidate for the 2016 election, Hilary Clinton, who scooped 65.8 million popular votes but lost the election due to Mr Trump winning more points in the electoral college.

The count is still underway in Georgia, where Mr Biden is currently leading, and North Carolina, where Mr Trump is leading.

Mr Biden was named the president-elect on Saturday after the Democrats scooped the state of Pennsylvania, giving Mr Biden 273 points, of which 270 he needed to win the presidency.

The result is the highest turn-out rate from eligible voters since 1968, according to data from the Associated Press (AP) and the United States Elections Project, which tracks turn-out. Experts believe the 2020 rate is one of the largest spikes in history and compared it to the dramatic change between the elections in 1916 and 1920, where the latter saw women turning out in force after being given the right to vote.

Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida who runs the Elections Project, said: “It's hard to imagine we can get higher than this.”

Analysis from AP shows that some of the biggest turnout increases to date occurred in states where postal voting rules have been more liberal in recent years. Montana and Vermont saw turn-out rise significantly – with more than 10 and nine percentage points respectively – than the previous presidential election.

Mr Trump has yet to concede to Mr Biden’s victory and has launched lawsuits into the counts in the states of Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The lawsuits have been rejected or dismissed in Nevada, Michigan, Georgia. Lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Arizona are ongoing.