Even though there was a 7 percent increase in voter turnout over 2016, only 66 percent of American adult citizens voted in the 2020 election.

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A 2020 post-election poll by Ipsos, sponsored by NPR and the Medill School of Journalism, found that “rather than perceived structural barriers or other concerns about voting (e.g., contracting Covid-19), the main reason non-voters did not engage in the process is because they don’t think it matters.” Read more here.

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A majority of those who did not vote in the 2020 presidential election “expressed a feeling that voting has little impact on their lives, or that it will change how the country is run.” Fifty-three percent (53%) of non-voters believe that “it makes no difference who is elected president — things go on just as they did before,” and two-thirds believe that “voting in elections has little to do with the way that real decisions are made in our country.”  

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But here is the biggie!! “Roughly two-thirds say we should have a third major political party in addition to the Democrats and Republicans.” This is a sentiment that 64 percent of non-voters share with 67 percent of voters. The desire for a new political party isn’t all those voters and non-voters agree on. Large majorities in both camps — 80 percent of non-voters and 73 percent of voters — say “traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me.”