The greatest democracy on earth is all set to elect the next President. With the year-long primary season and the conventions out of the way, both the major political parties are focused on the general election and with the challenging task of electing the new President of the United States.
However, the just concluded primaries, where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were elected by their own party’s registered voters, has had only less then 10% of the total population excercising their voting right.
According to surveys/research, the United States is home to 324 million people. 103 million of them are children, noncitizens or ineligible felons, and they do not have the right to vote. 88 million eligible adults do not vote at all, even in general elections, based on the share of eligible adults who voted in the 2012 general election.
An additional 73 million did not vote in the primaries this year, but will most likely vote in the general election. This number does not include people who voted in caucuses, which have less reliable turnout numbers. A small percentage of people vote in primaries but not in general elections, and they are also not included.
The remaining 60 million people voted in the primaries: about 30 million each for Republicans and Democrats. But half of the primary voters chose other candidates. Just 14 percent of eligible adults — only 9 percent of the whole nation — voted for either Trump or Clinton.
The overall shares were about the same in 2008, the last cycle without an incumbent president running. Trump and Clinton will be working to win the votes of these three groups. Polls suggest they will be separated by just a handful of votes, which will be the victory margin, between the loser and the winner, who will be holding the most powerful elected office on earth.
