As many as 64.64 crore people voted in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year with women voters outnumbering men. The female voter turnout stood at 65.78 per cent as compared to 65.55 per cent for male electors. The voter turnout in the 2024 general elections dipped by a little more than 1.3 percentage points in the past decade. More than 150 million (15 crore) Americans voted in this year’s 2024 general election, and for the first time in two decades the Republican presidential candidate – President-elect Donald Trump – won the popular vote. In comparison, the 2020 general election had a 66% turnout rate, the highest voter turnout rate of the 21st century due to the expansion of mail-in and early voting on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Government Efficiency’s decision to cancel multiple US government-funded international projects, including $21 million allocated for voter turnout initiatives in India, has kicked off an intense debate among major political parties about foreign involvement in India’s electoral process. Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party questioned who would benefit from such a fund, stating that it certainly was not the ruling party in India.
