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DOCUMENTATION FOR US_VEP_TURNOUT_RATES
Version: 1.2
Date: 10/8/2024
Authors and Licenses:
1948-Present data are provided by Michael McDonald, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida.
   They are released under an Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution License. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Prior to 1948 data were provided by Walter Dean Burnham. 
   I am unaware of licencing requirements for these data as they were personally provided to me by Walter Dean Burnham. 
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RELEASE NOTES
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Version 1.1 of national timeseries 
- Updates 2022 for release of 2022 version 1.1
- Fixes error in 2018 VAP calculations

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VARIABLES
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YEAR
=======
Year of election

TURNOUT_RATE_PRES
=======
Voting-eliigble population turnout rate for presidential elections. 

TURNOUT_RATE_MIDTERM
=======
Voting-eliigble population turnout rate for midterm election. 

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NOTES
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National United States Voting-Eligible Population (VEP) turnout rate for the appropriate national election.

For methodologies used to create the 1948-Present turnout rates, see corresponding state turnout rate pages at election.lab.ufl.edu.
For further information see:

- Michael P. McDonald and Samuel Popkin. 2001. "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter." American Political Science Review 95(4): 963-974.
- Michael P. McDonald. 2002. "The Turnout Rate Among Eligible Voters for U.S. States, 1980-2000." State Politics and Policy Quarterly 2(2): 199-212. 
- Michael P. McDonald. 2011. "Voter Turnout: Eligibility Has Its Benefits" in Controversies in Voting Behavior, 2nd Edition, Richard G. Niemi, Herbert F. Weisberg, and David Kimball, eds. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Prior to 1948 data were provided to me by Walter Dean Burnham. These statistics may also be found in: 
- Vital Statistics of American Politics, 2015-2016, Harold Stanley and Ruchard Neimi, eds. CQ Press, Washington, DC.

The voting eligible population is an estimate of those eligible to vote in an election.

Of course, historical turnout rates are challenged in that they are calculated from election results with accuracy challenges.
The historical voting-eligible population is calculated from estimates of classes of enfranchised populations that are as 
accurate as may be. With these caveats, these historical turnout rates are regarded as the most accurate available.

The pre-1948 numbers are taken from Vital Statistics of American Politics (CQ Press, Stanley and Niemi, eds.).
Turnout rates from 1948-present are from vaious years reported on the data archive.

Pre-1948 turnout rates are from Walter Dean Burnham, to whom I and many others are deeply indebted.