It wasn't just the result of the presidential election that was unexpected -- a surprisingly large number of people didn't even show up or Punjabi Archivescast ballots.
Voter turnout in 2016 looks likely to be around 55 percent, based on election numbers that are still being counted, CNN reports. That's the lowest since 1996, when just 49 percent of eligible voters showed up for the presidential race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.
SEE ALSO: Nearly half of Americans didn't vote — not even for HarambeThe United States Elections Project calculates there were more than 231.5 million eligible voters this year. Of those people, preliminary tabulations show about 127 million voted in 2016, meaning that well over 100 million people sat this one out.
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More than 108 million registered American voters did not exercise their right. 108. Million. 108. Million. I'm sad about that.
— George Atallah (@GeorgeAtallah) November 11, 2016
Overall turnout may have dipped, but there was an uptick in voting in many swing states, such as Michigan, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire, according to data compiled by the Cook Political Report and others.
Florida had a huge bump from 2012, when Barack Obama went up against Mitt Romney; 10 percent more voters in that state came out to vote in 2016. Overall, 14 "battleground" states saw an average 2 percent increase in votes cast (although some, like Ohio and Wisconsin, saw a slight drop).
All that talk of voter disinterest and the hold-your-nose election are being proved wrong by signs of record turnout in swing states.
— Neil King (@NKingofDC) November 8, 2016
A clearer picture on turnout is expected about two weeks after Election Day.
