Only 9 Percent Of The US Actually Voted For Trump Or Clinton, But Here We Are

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump are very popular nationwide, but, following the Democratic and Republican conventions, they are now officially the presidential nominees for the two major political parties in the US.

How is it two people who are so widely disliked are now potentially going to be president?

Some might blame the binary nature of America's political system, in the sense people feel stuck with two parties. Correspondingly, many argue America's electoral system, and particularly the primary process, are in desperate need of reform.

But maybe we should also look at how people vote, or rather the fact they're not really participating in the process at all.

The New York Times just created a fantastic interactive that really puts US voter participation into perspective, and shows a surprisingly low percentage of Americans actually voted for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

The population of the US is roughly 324 million.

Roughly 103 million Americans are not eligible to vote.

A shocking number of Americans do not vote at all.

A lot of Americans don't participate in the primaries.

Roughly 29 percent of estimated eligible voters participated in the primaries.

When it comes down to it, only about 9 percent of Americans voted for either Trump or Clinton.

Your vote counts.

Citations: New York Times