Voting in America: A Look at the 2016 Presidential Election

"Since 1964, the U.S. Census Bureau has fielded the Voting and Registration Supplement to the Current Population Survey every two years. Today, the Census Bureau released a series of tabulations and data products alongside a public use data file for the November 2016 presidential election.

In addition to the requirement that individuals be at least 18 years old, voters in national elections must also be U.S. citizens. Although the Census Bureau has collected voting and registration data since 1964, the Current Population Survey has gathered citizenship data since 1978. Figure 1 presents voting rates for the citizen voting-age population for each presidential election since 1980. In 2016, 61.4 percent of the citizen voting-age population reported voting, a number not statistically different from the 61.8 percent who reported voting in 2012.."

America votes

Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978–2014

"Voting is among our most fundamental domestic responsibilities and important civic opportunities. Without free and open elections, American democracy would not exist. Maintaining and improving our system of elections requires not only documenting election results, but also understanding the composition of America’s electorate, both historically and presently.
Since 1964, the U.S. Census Bureau has fielded the Voting and Registration Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) every 2 years. Generally speaking, national American elections fall into two categories: elections where voters decide on the office of the President and congressional seats, and elections where congressional seats are the highest offices decided. To avoid confusion with presidential elections, the following report refers to nonpresidential year elections as “congressional elections.” Election results and voting patterns tend to vary between these two types of elections (specifically, voting and registration rates are lower in years with congressional elections only), and the majority of this report will focus on congressional election years only (2014, 2010, 2006, etc.)..."
Voting