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Trivia answer
Which presidential election had the highest estimated voter turnout?
a. 2008
b. 1876
c. 1968
d. 1860
In the presidential election of 1876, an estimated 82.6% of the voting-eligible population cast ballots, the highest estimated turnout figure in U.S. history. That year, Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (R-Ohio) defeated Gov. Samuel Tilden (D-N.Y.) to win the presidency. The results of the election were not immediately clear, with both parties claiming victory in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina. The dispute was resolved in the Compromise of 1877, under which Hayes won the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from Southen states, bringing an end to the Reconstruction period.[1]
The lowest estimated turnout was 10.1%, which occurred during the election of 1820. That year, incumbent James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) won re-election without facing major-party opposition. The Federalist Party, which had experienced a decline in membership, nominated former Sen. Richard Stockton (Fed.-N.J.) for vice president but did not nominate a presidential candidate. Monroe won all but one vote in the Electoral College; an elector from New Hampshire pledged to Monroe instead cast his vote for John Quincy Adams.
Across every presidential election between 1789 and 2016, the average voter turnout rate was 57%. Of the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, all but the 2000 election (in which 54.2% of the eligible population voted) recorded above-average turnout. The highest turnout during this period was in 2008, when 61.6% of the eligible population cast a ballot.[2]
