Political science professor talks about voting trends
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – This is the first presidential election since the pandemic.
2020’s race of President Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, broke records by having the highest voter turnout since the 1900s according to census.gov.
“2020 was pretty much defined by COVID, and so, you saw a significant turnout owing to mail-in ballots, early voting, a lot of trends nationwide that deeply impacted voter turnout,” said Dr. Brian Shoup, a professor and the department head for MSU’s department of Political Science and Public Administration.
According to Statista, in 2020, Mississippi’s turn out rate was 60.2%.
Shoup says many factors affect how voters turn out.
“I do think that higher turnout is largely now driven somewhat by the extent to which the political party we vote for, the candidates that we vote for, are a part of our identities, and I think historically that may not have been such a strong dynamic in terms of what drove people to the polls,” said Shoup.
Shoup also suggests that social media may have impacted the higher voter turnout this year in an attempt to reach a younger or underrepresented audience.
“It is definitely the case in this age where we have polarization, social media, and a lot of other dynamics compelling people to participate in a rate that they historically didn’t,” said Shoup.
Shoup said there has also been an increase in early voting.
However, results may not be finalized Tuesday night.
“The amount of early turnout has gone up considerably and there has been (some) legislations passed in some states that make it hard to count those early votes until after the polls close,” said Shoup.
Shoup said voter turnout was low in 2016 but has increased since then.
