nonvoter

noun

non·​vot·​er ˌnän-ˈvō-tər How to pronounce nonvoter (audio)
plural nonvoters
: a person who fails or chooses not to vote or does not have the legal right to vote
A mere 37 percent of the eligible electorate voted in the 1986 Congressional elections, the vast majority of nonvoters arguably casting ballots of no confidence.Richard Caplan

Examples of nonvoter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In Atlanta, dislike for President Trump spurs a chronic nonvoter to the polls. Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2020 Michelle Obama blamed nonvoters, not Republicans, for President Trump's election in 2016. Madison Dibble, Washington Examiner, 4 May 2020 Exit polls suggested the surge in the support for the party resulted from mobilizing nonvoters and drawing votes from Ms. Merkel’s party. Katrin Bennhold, New York Times, 1 Sep. 2019 In other words, there’s no reason to see a real tension between chasing swing voters and mobilizing nonvoters in terms of issue positions. Matthew Yglesias, Vox, 23 July 2018 Registered voters were considerably more likely than nonvoters to give the federal government’s handling of the crisis a bad review, according to the CNN poll. Giovanni Russonello, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Apr. 2020 And turnout among young voters and liberal nonvoters did not surge, failing to reshape the electorate as Mr. Sanders had hoped. New York Times, 1 Apr. 2020 Young people also make up a big percentage of nonvoters: Only between 40 and 50 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and their mid-20s voted in the 2015 and 2017 elections, compared with about 80 percent of voters in their 70s. Ceylan Yeginsu, New York Times, 8 Dec. 2019 To be sure, this dismissal had little in common with the disaffection of nonvoters or partisan disdain. Wired, 22 Sep. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nonvoter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of nonvoter was in 1851

Dictionary Entries Near nonvoter

Cite this Entry

“Nonvoter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonvoter. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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