How voter conscious were citizens in the United States 100 years ago?

Say we had a time machine and traveled back to November of 1921. How political active was the average citizen of the United States? In the modern era there are a plethora of different ways to keep up with world events and educate oneself on things from political parties to candidates. 100 years ago the newspaper was a far more important medium for current events. I think the radio was available to people by this time, but I think it wasn’t until the late 1920s and 1930s that the radio became more commercialized. I know civic meetings from religious gatherings to union meetings were very common back then and for ordinary people would have been an opportunity to engage. I’m still confused on how prevalent that was considering the larger population that still lived in rural America. Were the opportunities as common? Keep in mind most people worked long laborious hours at that time, so the question becomes how informed was your average voter at that time.

It’s an interesting debate. Would you say voters were more engaged back then than now or vice versa? Has the technology changes helped or hurt voter engagement?

Statistics are interesting. For example the 1920 presidential election had a voter turnout of 49.2% while the 2020 election had 66.2% turnout. Was that just the specifics of that election or are voters more engaged now?

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