Nearly 100 Million Eligible Americans Didn't Vote In 2016. Why Not? | 1A

For many people, voting is viewed as the foundation of American democracy. People fought and died for the right to cast a ballot. And some are still fighting to protect that right to this day. But almost 100 million eligible Americans didn’t vote in 2016.

While voting access has grown since women’s suffrage and the Civil Rights movement, the proportion of eligible voters to ballots cast has remained moderate. Despite being eligible to vote, voter turnout in presidential elections hasn’t cracked over 60 percent in more than 50 years.

The reason might be a combination of disenfranchisement, long lines, complicated mail-in-ballots, and even suppression. But that still doesn’t fully explain the politically disengaged that have eluded researchers for decades. So what gives?