With 52.2% of adult U.S. citizens casting ballots, voter turnout for last year's elections was the second highest for a midterms since 2000, according to estimates the Census Bureau released Tuesday.
The 2018 midterms — the first major national contests after former President Donald Trump's election — saw slightly higher turnout than last year's races.
The 2022 midterm elections also saw a continuing shift toward early and mail-in voting since the COVID-19 pandemic, as 49.8% of voters opted out of the more traditional way of casting their ballots in person on the last day of voting.
The estimates come from the bureau's Current Population Survey, which checked in with about 50,000 households in November 2022 after voting for last year's midterm elections ended.
Other key findings about the 2022 midterm elections include:
An earlier round of surveying by the bureau previously found that 2020 saw the highest voter turnout of this century, with 66.8% of adult U.S. citizens casting ballots in that presidential election year, despite the hurdles brought on by the early months of the pandemic. COVID led many states and local communities to increase access to mail and early voting.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
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