Youth voter registration rates are lagging compared with 2020: See map
More than 8 million young Americans will be eligible to vote for the first time this year, making up about 41 million of the total Gen Z voters in 2024. How many of these eligible voters have been registered, and will this lead to a higher turnout among young people?
A report from The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) shows increases in youth voter registration rates since July, but most states are lagging in registering young voters compared with November 2020.
The analysis from CIRCLE looks at youth voter registration counts for September 2024 compared with November 2020 in 34 states. Researches said lower registration rates are expected because millions of people will continue to register in the coming weeks.
Authors of the report wrote, "The extent to which a majority of states have fewer registered young voters than they did at the time of the 2020 election underscores that registering youth remains a major task."
Here's what you need to know about changes in youth voter registration rates:
Which states have increasing rates of eligible voters registering?
Eight states – Michigan, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kansas, Nevada, Texas, Massachusetts and Tennessee – are slightly ahead in the number of people ages 18 to 29 registered to vote compared with November 2020, CIRCLE's analysis found.
Michigan and Nevada recently began using automatic voter registration systems, which can help increase registration rates among young people, the report stated.
This method automatically registers eligible citizens who interact with their local driver's licensing department unless they decline, according to the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Supporters of automatic voter registration said it helps expand voting access and modernizes voter registration.
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Alberto Medina, communications team lead at CIRICLE, told Paste BN he is not surprised by the big differences between states in voter registration counts. "The reality is that some states make it much easier to register to vote than others - with policies like automatic voter registration and pre-registration."
Medina added that Michigan and Nevada, which have these policies in place, have already exceeded 2020 in the count of young registered voters.
Most states are far behind in registering new eligible voters
Of the 34 states CIRCLE analyzed in its report, 31 are behind their respective November 2020 registration counts of 18- and 19-year-olds. A majority of these states are more than 20% behind their number of 18- and 19-year-olds registered to vote in the 2020 election.
Pennsylvania and Arizona − both swing states − are the furthest behind in registering 18- and 19-year-olds. Pennsylvania is trailing by 40% compared with its 2020 count. Arizona is behind by 44% compared with its November 2020 count, according to CIRCLE.
Medina told Paste BN one reason a majority of states are behind in their count is that 2020 was a historic year for youth voter turnout and registration.
"We estimate that 50% of young people ages 18 to 29 voted in 2020 − that was a double-digit increase from 2016. So we are comparing to a high watermark," Medina said.
Youth voter turnout is on the rise
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows voter turnout among people ages 18 to 24 has risen to record levels. About half of all Americans in this age group voted in the 2020 presidential election − up by 9 percentage points compared with the 2016 election.
"There have been a couple of really positive election cycles in terms of youth participation," Medina said.
"We saw a huge youth turnout from 2016 to 2020. We need to continue to see the type of investment in young people that we have seen in recent election cycles," Medina said.
Contributing: Savannah Kuchar