NATIONWIDE — As votes continue to be tabulated around the country, more than 148 million Americans have cast their ballots in this election according to a tally from The Associated Press. As of Sunday, the tallied votes accounted for 62% of the eligible voting-age population in the U.S., according to the AP.

In 2016, 60% of elligble voters turned out and in 2008, it almost hit 62%, according to voter data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

But a large portion of this year's voters were ages 18 to 29. 

Youth voter turnout

Nearly 53% of young voters cast a ballot so far this election, and that number is expected to rise up to 56%, according to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.

That's nearly 10% more than in 2016, which was between 40% to 48%, according to CIRCLE's findings.

The youth share vote, which is percentage of all votes in a given election that were cast by young voters, also increased this election to 17% from 16% in 2016.

Nationwide, youth voters preferred President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a 25-point margin, which ended up being pivotal in key states. 

  • In Michigan, young voters cast 194,000 votes for Biden, which is higher than the 148,000-vote margin that turned the state blue. 
  • In Arizona, the president-elect garnered 126,000 estimated votes from that age group.
  • In Georgia, Biden received around 188,000 more votes than Trump.
  • In Pennsylvania, Biden got around 154,000, which is more than his 46,000-vote lead over Trump in the state.

Georgia has the highest youth share vote right now with 21%. The state with the least youth share is Pennyslvania at 12%, with Michigan following closely behind with just 13%. 

Young people of color were a critical part of Biden's projected victory, according to the data.

White youth voted for Biden with a slim margin of 45% to 51%. More than 73% of Latino youth, 83% of Asian youth and 87% of Black youth supported Biden. 

COVID-19 and young voters

Young voters, especially those of color, were more likely than other age groups to have experienced negative affects from COVID-19, according to the AP VoteCast survey. The pandemic is an issue the president-elect is already focusing on. Biden announced a COVID-19 task force of health professionals Monday to start working on curbing on the spread of the virus and coming up with plans for the future. 

The U.S. is now averaging more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.

Compared to 38% of all participants in the survey, around 52% of young voters say the pandemic has affected their work life, either by losing their jobs or receiving reductions in hours and pay. One-in-five expressed a friend or a family member has passed away from COVID-19, and than number nearly doubles for young voters of color. Three out of five expressed missing out on big life events because of the virus. 

Of the young voters who backed Biden, the highest percentage of votes he received from that group were of those who experienced loss because of COVID-19.