Census Bureau's Voter Stats for 2022 Reflect Popularity of Early Voting

More than half of the nation’s citizen, voting-age population voted in 2022 — the second highest turnout for a congressional election in two decades, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The 52.2% voter turnout nationwide was just 1.2 percentage points lower than in 2018 (53.4%) and significantly higher than in 2014 (41.9%) and in 2010 (45.5%).

Despite lower turnout in 2022 than in 2018, the share of voting-age citizens who were registered to vote was 69.1% — the highest registration rate in a midterm election since at least 2002.

The data are based on the Voting and Registration Supplement which surveyed non-institutionalized civilians about their voting and registration behavior in the 2022 congressional elections.  In the survey, the most common reasons reported for not voting in 2022 were “Too busy, conflicting work or school schedule” (26.5%); “Not interested, felt my vote wouldn’t make a difference” (17.6%); and “Illness or disability,” (12.5%).

The share of voters who voted early, by mail or a combination of both in 2022 remained high for a midterm election following record high rates in the 2020 presidential election, officials noted.  Of those who voted, 49.8% used these voting methods — 10 percentage points higher than in 2018 (39.8%) and 18.7 percentage points higher than in 2014 (31.1%).

Nearly a third (31.8%) of all U.S. voters cast ballots by mail, up 8.6 percentage points from 2018 but down 11.2 percentage points from 2020.  Almost half (47.1%) of all voters voted early. While this was 20.4 percentage points lower than the early voting rate in 2020, it was 9.3 percentage points higher than the early voting rate in 2018.

Connecticut voters approved a ballot question that would permit the state legislature to approve a system of early voting in Connecticut for the first time.  The state legislature is expected to do so during the current legislative session, which is to end on June 7, but it is not expected that such a system would be implemented until 2024.

The highest rates of early and mail-in voting in 2022 were in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where 95% or more of those who voted did so by mail, before election day or both, the data showed.  Connecticut, along with Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and New Hampshire, had among the lowest rates in the nation. 

The use of early and mail-in voting varied by race and ethnicity nationwide, with two-thirds (66.7%) of Asian non-Hispanic voters using these voting methods — the highest rate across race and ethnicity, according to the Census Bureau.  A majority of Hispanic voters (58.1%) voted either early or by mail.  White non-Hispanic (48.3%) and Black non-Hispanic voters (46.0%) — the lowest rates among all race/ethnic groups.

Overall, according to the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office, statewide voter turnout in Connecticut was 61.73%; the number of absentee ballots counted in the 2022 election was 151,324.

The highest voter turnouts among the state’s 169 municipalities were in Deep River 85.81%, Portland 77.60%, Norfolk 76.40%, Bridgewater 75.85%, Salisbury 75.37%, Goshen 74.65%, Marlborough 74.23%, Roxbury 74.15%, Old Lyme 73.95%, and Lyme 73.74%.