Massive Turnout of Early Voters Reported

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

A little over 47 million people were able to cast early ballots in the 2016 US Presidential election.  Today, still ten days out from the 2020 presidential election, more than 54 million votes have been cast in the US presidential election race - and the lines to vote, at least in some states - appear to just keep getting longer and more determined!

My own absentee ballot arrived in the mail on September 23rd of this year.  I marked it in the privacy and security of my home, and turned it into my county election officials the following day - September 24th - one month ago today.  At that time only a couple of million votes had been cast for President nationwide, but in the ensuing month there has been an avalanche of voting across the entire country.  As of today, in fact, votes totaling more than 40% of all of those cast in the 2016 election have already been cast in the current election.

The current population of persons aged eighteen and over in the United States is 257 million, and of those  about 240 million are eligible to vote this year.   (128,838,342 Americans voted for President in 2016, or 60.1% of the total eligible voters that year.)  The highest voter turnout in a presidential election over the past half century was in 2008 when Obama beat McCain.  That election saw 61.65% of eligible voters going to the polls.  If the current rapid pace of early voting continues in this election cycle, that record is certain to fall.

Professor Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project is predicting that as much as 65% of the eligible population may vote this year - or around 150 million voters.   The group FiveThirtyEight is predicting that the number of actual voters might reach 154 million - based on its own polls of voter enthusiasm and other data.

Donald Trump, a man who has complained long and bitterly about voting by mail while falsely claiming that it leads to "massive" voter fraud, is now encouraging his supporters to use vote-by-mail, especially in the critical swing state of Florida.   Trump who generally votes by mail himself, was planning to vote in person in Palm Beach County, Florida, today where some toady election official will no doubt whisk him around any inconvenient lines of voters.

This is Saturday, and while Trump probably stopped off to vote while on his way to the golf course, I congratulate him nevertheless on taking time out from his busy schedule to participate in democracy,  It's reassuring to know that he takes the right to vote so seriously, particularly after he and his colleagues in the GOP have worked so tirelessly to deny that same right to so many others.

And I would also like to give a tip-of-the-hat to another Floridian, David Hogg, a 20-year-old survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida.   Young Mr. Hogg has gone on to become a crusader against the gun lobby as well as a proponent of young people voting.    The voter registration efforts of David Hogg and his friends could very well be the determining factor in this year's election.

Well, THEIR work - and MY vote - of course!  

Be a part of history - cast your VOTE in this extremely important election - and the sooner you do so, the better!    Git 'er done!