Voting Fast Facts

The Youth Vote

  • 47 million 18- to 29-year-olds were eligible to vote in the 2020 election. (VOA News) There are an estimated additional 8.3 million newly eligible young voters for the 2022 midterm elections. (Tufts University)
  • An estimated 50% of young people, ages 18-29, voted in the 2020 presidential election, a remarkable 11-point increase from 2016 (39%) and likely one of the highest rates of youth electoral participation since the voting age was lowered to 18. (Tufts University)
  • The youth share of California’s voters increased to 10.2% in 2020, up from 8.9% in 2016. This was the highest of any California statewide general election since 2002. (USC Center for Inclusive Democracy)
  • As of February 2021, around 112,000 16- and 17-year-olds in California were preregistered to vote, meaning that the number of preregistered voters in California declined by 21% from February 2019 to 2021. (The Civics Center)
  • 28,373 Los Angeles County 16- and 17-year-olds are pre-registered to vote as of March 2022. (CA Secretary of State)

General Electorate

  • Nearly 22 million people in California are registered to vote ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. That’s 81.5% of eligible residents. (CA Secretary of State)
  • Americans voted in record numbers in the 2020 presidential election, casting nearly 158.4 million ballots. That works out to more than six-in-ten people of voting age and nearly two-thirds of estimated eligible voters. (Pew Research Center)
  • Twenty-seven states and Washington, D.C., offer “no-excuse” absentee voting, which means that any voter can request and cast an absentee/mail ballot, no excuse or reason necessary. (National Conference of State Legislatures)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.hrwstf.org/wordpress/voting-fast-facts/