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How Many NYers Bothered Voting On Tuesday? The Answer May Dishearten You
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 6, 2014
Modified Nov 6, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 6, 2014
Modified Nov 6, 2014
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On Tuesday, approximately 83 million Americans headed to the polls, handing the Senate to the Republicans and swapping Harry Reid out for Mitch McConnell on the list of irritating voices to ignore on television. If that number seems low, that's because it is—91 million Americans cast votes in the 2010 midterms, and about 130 million voted in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. And here in New York State, where Governor Cuomo was handily re-elected, a measly 3.7 million people voted, a record low for the state. More people clicked on that potato salad Kickstarter than bothered voting in New York. This is the world we live in now.
Apparently, Tuesday's sad, sad statistics are the lowest ever for the Empire State, with ballots filed by only about one-third of registered voters in New York—Cuomo received 685,000 fewer votes this year than he did in 2010. Coincidentally, the last low-turnout record was 4.2 million in 1990, when papa Mario Cuomo was elected governor. And only 27 percent of those voters hailed from the city, down 30 percent from in 2010.
Not that New York's low turnout stood out in this election—according to U.S. News, fewer voters showed up in all but 12 states this year. Washington, Delaware, Missouri, South Dakota, California and Indiana all saw drastic drops, and only about 36.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters cast ballots overall.
And of course, Millennials were too busy sexting or something to bother voting at all—according to NBC News, only 12 percent of voters in this election were under 30 years old. This was a bummer for the Democrats, who received the majority of Millennials' votes, and got massacred anyway. The good news is we can blame Millennials for just about everything!
Tagged
election 2016
election day
midterm election
voting
Rebecca Fishbein
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