New data shows how WA voters turned out for 2024 presidential election

SEATTLE – Lately, it seems, every federal election is billed as “the most important of our lifetime,” and that was certainly true of the 2024 presidential contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Another common refrain during the election cycle was “Democracy is at stake. How much did that rhetoric drive voter turnout in Washington and around the nation?

Newly released U.S. Census Bureau data on turnout for the 2024 election helps answer that question.

In Washington state, about 3.86 million people voted in the 2024 election, representing 70% of the 5.52 million state residents who are citizens and of voting age. That ranked the state as 15th, tied with Rhode Island, among the 50 states and Washington, D.C.

That’s not quite as high of a turnout as the state had in 2020, when 71.5% of eligible voters turned out, tying Washington state with Virginia for 10th place. But then, 2020 was an exceptional year for voter turnout.

Still, compared with earlier elections, the turnout in 2024 was high. For example, in the 2016 presidential election, around 3.38 million of Washington’s 5.1 million eligible voters cast a ballot, which pencils out to 66.3% .

Washington, D.C., had a higher turnout than any state in 2024, at 79.5%, and the top state was Minnesota at 75.9%. Oregon was just a fraction behind, at 75.3% – and yes, turnout in the Beaver State has been significantly higher than in Washington in the past few federal elections. But in the 2016 presidential contest, Washington and Oregon tied.

The state with the lowest turnout in November was Arkansas, at 52.8%.

Nationally, around 154 million people voted, representing 65.3% of citizens age 18 and older. In 2020, 66.8% of those eligible to vote cast a ballot.

In Washington state, women voted at a higher rate than men, which has been the pattern in recent elections. The spread was quite large in 2024, with a turnout of 73% among women and 67% among men – that six-point gap was the ninth largest among the states. Washington women ranked 10th for voter turnout among women, while the men only ranked 23rd among men.

Nationally, 66.9% of women and 63.7% of men voted, among those eligible. There were only four states where men voted at a higher rate than women: Ohio, South Carolina, Idaho and Maine.

Historically, young adults tend to vote at a much lower rate than older adults, and this was true in 2024. Nationally, there were only 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, where the majority of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds voted. Washington was not among them.

In Washington state, 49.7% of the eligible population age 18 to 24 voted. The highest turnout for this age group was in Washington, D.C., at 73.2%, and the lowest was in Arizona, at 31.9%.

Adults 65 and older tend to vote at the highest rate of any age group, and that also was true in 2024. In Washington state, 78.8% of people in this age group voted, among those who were eligible. New Jersey had the highest rate for this age group, at 84.7%, and West Virginia was lowest, at 62.8%. The national average for adults 65 and older was 65.3%.

The data also includes a racial and ethnic breakdown, which shows that in Washington state, the highest turnout was among white, non-Hispanic voters, at 75.5% for those eligible to vote. Turnout was 52.6% among Asian voters, 50.9% among Hispanic voters and 49.2% among Black voters.