The 2024 Presidential Election is expected to draw the highest voter turnout in U.S. history. In 2020, 66% of Americans aged 18 and over voted. Now, polls show that number could reach 85% in the upcoming election.
However, even though the number of voters will be a record high, a larger number of voters polled said they plan to skip the presidential portion of the November ballot.
Mike Dabadie, the CEO and managing partner of Heart+Mind Strategies in Virginia, polled eligible voters and said that 11% of those who were going to vote planned to skip the presidential ballot. They said they would essentially leave the presidential portion of the ballot blank but still vote down the ballot.
“We looked at all demographics,” Dabadie told WTOP. “We looked at all regions of the country, we looked at parties.”
When asked why they were planning to skip part of the ballot, voters predominantly said they did not like either of the two candidates or felt disenfranchised.
Dabadie said that the voters polled believed that “it’s just not worth it for [them] to vote, and [they feel their] vote doesn’t matter.”
One person polled said they would skip the presidential ballot because they “don’t like any of the candidates we have today.”
A third person polled echoed these statements and said, “I won’t vote for anyone in the presidential race. So that leaves me without casting a vote for president. But I’m still going to vote.”
As far as whether voter behavior will mimic the poll data, Dabadie said they will just have to wait until November to see what voters do.
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