High Voter Turnout and Record Fund-Raising Give Democrats Hope for November
It has been one of the most challenging election years in a century: A deadly pandemic upended normal voting in state-by-state primaries, and a rapid expansion of mail-in ballots struggled to meet demand — problems exacerbated by the decades-long hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act and new, Republican-backed lawsuits to restrict ballot access.
And yet: Overall turnout among voters casting ballots for Democratic presidential candidates so far this year has already surpassed primary season levels in 2016, as did fund-raising between April and June. Democrats are nearing the record numbers set in 2008 on both counts, even though the marquee 2020 race, for the Democratic presidential nomination, largely ended in March with Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the presumptive nominee.
Roughly 34 million Democrats have already cast their ballots in 2020, and major states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have yet to report official results, meaning the number will most likely be millions more. By contrast, in 2016, just under 31 million Democrats voted in a more contested presidential primary race; in 2008, more than 37 million voted in the primaries.
The apparent energy in the Democratic base could foreshadow significant turnout in the November general election, even as the coronavirus continues to scramble the political process. The trend is especially notable in some traditionally Republican states like Texas, Georgia and Arizona, as well as Democratic-leaning states that Republicans often contest, like Virginia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/politics/biden-2020.html
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