Pew: Even amid high turnout, less than 40% of Americans voted in all three most recent national elections

Only 37% of eligible American citizens voted in all three of the most recent national general elections, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center – even though those elections saw some of the highest turnout in decades. The analysis, which tracked individual Americans’ voting decisions over the past six years, highlights both the limited share of the public that consistently votes, and the degree to which the fluctuations in turnout can alter the electoral landscape. The findings, taken in conjunction with other, sometimes-conflicting sources of election data, help to draw a more detailed profile of the 2022 electorate.

About a third of eligible citizens participated less consistently, voting in only one or two of the last three elections, the report found, while 30% didn’t vote in any of those contests.

Consistent voters in the past three elections were about evenly divided between those aligned with the Democratic Party (49%) and those aligned with the GOP (50%). The partisan mix of less-consistent voters, by contrast, varied between each election.

There was also significant demographic variation in which groups most reliably turned out, with older and White Americans more likely to vote consistently.

And regardless of what drives any individual’s decision – or ability – to vote in a given election, that volatility in turnout can have a big impact on electoral outcomes. The Pew report suggests that changing turnout played a far bigger role than changing minds in the past two midterms.

“Voters who were more favorable to Republican candidates turned out at higher rates compared with those who typically support Democrats,” the report’s authors write. “Shifting preferences among individual voters – though likely consequential in some races – was a much smaller factor in the 2022 midterms compared with…