I have been saying (and writing) that 110,000,000 eligible US voters sat out the 2020 presidential election. I was repeating unverified information from a trusted source (Mary Trump, I think). I prefer multiple sources to confirm facts.
The other day I did the math. Adding Trump’s 74,000,000, Biden’s 81,000,000 and 110,000,000 gives us 265,000,000, an unlikely number of 18 years plus in a nation of 334,776,423, (as of Trump’s 76th birthday last week.)
National Public Radio reported it was a mere 80,000,000 who took no side in Biden v Trump. I stand possibly corrected. Here’s their story, with the various rationales for abstaining from our democratic duty to hold our nose and vote every few years:
My math, using the 110,000,000 number, gave me about 20% of the U.S. population under 18, which seemed very low.
Quick check with the US Census, and, yep, just over 20% under 18.
By comparison, the younger population under age 18 numbered 73.1 million, or 22.1% of the U.S. population in 2020, a 1.4% decrease from 74.2 million in 2010
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/united-states-adult-population-grew-faster-than-nations-total-population-from-2010-to-2020.html#:~:text=By%20comparison%2C%20the%20younger%20population,from%2074.2%20million%20in%202010
So the number of eligible voters who sat out Trump v. Biden was likely around 100,000,000 friends of democracy. God damn.
On the other hand 26,664,746 more votes were cast in 2020 (67% of eligible voters) than in 2016 (55%) meaning possibly 130,000,000 Americans sat out 2016. The 2020 increase broke 11.2 million more for Trumpie and 15.4 million more for his Democratic opponent. Hence the drive in every Republican state to nullify the votes of non-Republicans in the name of Election Integrity (and the hothouse grown Independent State Legislature Doctrine.)
Get out and vote, citizens.
