Voter registration in the United States

All U.S. states and territories, except North Dakota, require voter registration by eligible citizens before they can vote in federal, state and local elections. In North Dakota, cities in the state may register voters for city elections, and in other cases voters must provide identification and proof of entitlement to vote at the polling place before being permitted to vote. Voter registration takes place at the county level in many states or at the municipal level in several states. Many states set cutoff dates for registration or to update details, ranging from two to four weeks before an election, while 25 states and Washington, D.C. have same-day voter registration, which enables eligible citizens to register or update their registration on the same day they cast their vote. In states that permit early voting, and have voter registration, the prospective voter must be registered before casting a vote.
Some historical registration requirements, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, were part of the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Jim Crow South.
More recently, several common misconceptions have developed around the supposed consequences of registering to vote—that it exposes the person to the military draft, or affects car insurance rates, or requires a permanent address. Despite being untrue, these beliefs are sometimes deterrents for registration. The impact and fairness of other requirements, such as voter identification laws, are the subject of ongoing debate.
The legal case Pitts v. Black in 1984 established that eligible American voters residing in non-conventional accommodations, like a park bench, cannot be refused to register to vote, allowing people experiencing homelessness to participate in elections.
A 2023 study by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) found that 85.4% of the citizen voting age population (CVAP) in the United States were registered to vote at the time of the 2022 general elections, more than 203 million U.S. citizens.
While voters were historically required to register at government offices by a certain date before an election, the federal government in the mid-1990s made efforts to increase turnout by easing the registration process. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the "Motor Voter" law) requires state governments to either provide uniform opt-in registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, and mail-in registration, or to allow Election Day voter registration, where voters can register at polling places immediately prior to voting.
In 2016, Oregon became the first state to make voter registration fully automatic (opt-out) when issuing driver licenses and ID cards, since followed by 15 more states and the District of Columbia. Political parties and other organizations sometimes hold voter registration drives to register new voters.
In 31 states and the District of Columbia, persons registering to vote may at the same time declare an affiliation with a political party.
In 1800, Massachusetts was the first state to require voter registration as a prerequisite for voting in the state. This was followed by Maine (1821), Pennsylvania (1836) and Connecticut (1839). During the 19th century, and especially after the Civil War, more states and cities set a voter registration as a prerequisite to voting, partially to prevent voting by immigrants in cities. However, it was not until 1913 when Nebraska became the first state to establish a permanent statewide voter register, overseen by an election commissioner.
According to a 2020 study, voter registration laws adopted in the period 1880–1916 reduced turnout as much as 19%.
North Dakota abolished voter registration in 1951 for state and federal elections, the only state to do so. Since 2004 it has required voters to produce ID at time of casting a vote. This has led to North Dakota being accused of voter suppression because many Native American were denied a vote because the address on their tribal IDs had a post office box address, which continues to be a common practice.
In 2002, Arizona made online voter registration available. In 2016, Oregon became the first state to implement a fully automatic (opt-out) voter registration system tied to the process of issuing driver licenses and ID cards.
North Dakota is the only state that does not have voter registration, which was abolished in 1951, although cities in North Dakota may register voters for city elections. In North Dakota voters must provide identification and proof of entitlement to vote at the polling place before being permitted to vote.
North Dakota is exempt from the requirements of the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Because of this exemption, North Dakota has since 2004 required voters to produce an approved form of ID before being able to vote, one of which was a tribe ID commonly used by Native Americans. It was common and lawful for a post office box to be used on this ID, instead of a residential address, because there are no street addresses on reservations. In 2016, a change required tribal ID to have a residential address to be accepted, and North Dakota has been accused of voter suppression with many Native Americans being denied a vote because they did not have an approved form of ID with a residential address.
North Dakota's ID law especially adversely affected large numbers of Native Americans, with almost a quarter of Native Americans in the state, otherwise eligible to vote, being denied a vote on the basis that they do not have proper ID; compared to 12% of non-Indians. A judge overturned the ID law in July 2016, also saying: "The undisputed evidence before the Court reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent." However, the denial of a vote on this basis was also an issue in the 2018 mid-term election.
While the United States Congress has jurisdiction over laws applying to federal elections, it has deferred most aspects of election law to the states. The United States Constitution prohibits states from restricting voting rights in ways that infringe on a person's right to equal protection under the law (14th Amendment), on the basis of race (15th Amendment), on the basis of sex (19th Amendment), on the basis of having failed to pay a poll tax or any tax (14th Amendment (see: Harper v. VA Elections Board) & 24th Amendment), or on the basis of age for persons age 18 and older (26th Amendment). The administration of elections, however, vary widely across jurisdictions.
In general, US citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote in federal elections. In a few cases, permanent residents ("green card" holders) have registered to vote and have cast ballots without realizing that doing so was illegal. Non-citizens convicted in criminal court of having made a false claim of citizenship for the purpose of registering to vote in a federal election can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. Deportation and removal proceedings have resulted from several such cases. Some municipalities allow non-citizen residents to vote in municipal or school district elections.
All states except Maine and Vermont (and the District of Columbia) deny the vote to convicted felons for some duration, a practice known as felony disenfranchisement. In 16 states, voting is only prohibited during incarceration. 21 states additionally prohibit voting during parole or probation but allow voting after. Eleven states either indefinitely suspend voting rights or require special action to have voting rights restored.
In 2023 a contractor, WSD Digital, developing a voter registration and e-pollbook system for New Hampshire put in code to link to websites in Russia and used open source software managed by a Russian. New Hampshire found those issues by hiring another company, ReversingLabs, to review the code of the first company.
In 2016 Russian hackers probed all states and breached voter registration systems in two states. Breaches have the potential to add, remove or change voters, allowing later addition of ballots in those names.
A 2012 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that 24% of the voting-eligible population in the United States are not registered to vote, a percentage that represents "at least 51 million eligible U.S. citizens." The study suggests that registration requirements contribute to discouraging people from exercising their right to vote, thereby causing a lower voter turnout. The extent of discouragement and its effect on increasing the socioeconomic bias of the electorate however remain contested.
In a 1980 landmark study, Raymond E. Wolfinger and Steven J. Rosenstone came to the conclusion that less restrictive registration requirements would substantially increase the electoral turnout. According to their probit analysis, if all states adopted the procedures of the most permissive state regulations, which would mean:
(p 73) turnout in the 1972 presidential election would have been 9.1% higher, with 12.2 million additional people having voted. In a seminal 1988 book, sociologists Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven argued that lowering registration requirements would improve socioeconomic equality in the composition of the electorate.
Findings such as this have inspired lawmakers to facilitate the registration process, eventually leading to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (or "Motor Voter" act) that required states to allow voter registration at various public offices, including drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, as well as mail-in registration, unless a state adopts Election Day voter registration. The way towards passing this piece of federal legislation was however lengthy and rocky, as these reforms were highly contested. In an expanded 1990 edition of their 1988 book, titled "Why Americans still don't vote: and why politicians want it that way," Cloward and Piven argued that the reforms were expected to encourage less-privileged groups which happen to lean towards the Democratic Party.
While the turnout at federal elections did substantially increase following the electoral reforms, the effect fell short of Wolfinger and Rosenstone's expectations while Cloward's and Piven's hope of improving the demographic representativeness of the electorate wasn't fulfilled at all. Political scientist Adam Berinsky concluded in a 2005 article that the reforms designed to make voting "easier" in their entirety had an opposite effect, actually increasing the preexisting socioeconomic biases by ensuring "that those citizens who are most engaged with the political world – those with politically relevant resources – continue to participate, whereas those individuals without such resources fall by the wayside." As Berinsky reaffirms in a 2016 piece, the only way to increase turnout while improving representativeness is making more people become interested in politics.
The lack of a place of residence, a mailing address or a form of identification are barriers for the homeless to vote.
In a 2012 Pew Research Center study, researchers found that military personnel were disproportionately affected by voter registration errors. Most often these involved members of the military and their families who were deployed overseas.
Traditionally, voter registration took place at government offices, but the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which came into effect on January 1, 1995, simplified registration. The Act requires state governments to provide opt-in registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, as well as providing for mail-in registration. However, six states are exempt from the streamlined processes under the Act: North Dakota, Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In the years since the 2000 presidential election, many states have implemented innovative policies that streamline the process of voter registration, promote voter list accuracy, and create options for eligible citizens to register or to update their registration. Such innovations include online voter registration, automatic voter registration, and same-day voter registration.
A September 2024 study by the Center for Election Innovation & Research found that the implementation of at least one of these three voter registration methods increased from seven states in 2000 to 46 states in 2024. To underscore this point: during the 2000 general election, fewer than 6 percent of voting-age citizens lived in states with one of these registration methods. As of this study, nearly 90 percent of voting-age citizens live in states that will have at least one of these methods in place for the 2024 presidential election, and roughly one-third of voting-age citizens now live in states that have implemented all three methods.
The maps below show the innovative registration methods available in each state and Washington, D.C., in 2024.
As of September 2024, online voter registration is available in 43 states and the District of Columbia. North Dakota does not have voter registration. Since a federal judicial order in September 2020, Texas allows residents to register to vote online if and when they are renewing their driver's licenses or state identification cards.
As of September 2023, 24 states and the District of Columbia had automatic registration of citizens who interact with state agencies such as the DMV, along with 3 other states that have passed legislation or committed administratively to create automatic registration systems, but not yet implemented it. Those interacting with the state agencies have the option to opt-out of registering.
On January 1, 2016, the Oregon Motor Voter Act implemented automatic voter registration of eligible citizens tied to the process of issuing driver licenses and ID cards, with the person having the right to opt out. By April 2016 three more states – California, West Virginia, and Vermont – adopted the system, and in May 2016 Connecticut announced plans to implement it administratively rather than by legislation. Alaskan voters approved Measure 1 on November 8, 2016, to allow residents to register to vote when applying annually for the state's Permanent Dividend Fund. Voter approval of Measure 1 made Alaska the first state to implement automatic (opt-in) voter registration via ballot initiative. New York passed automatic voter registration on December 22, 2020, with implementation to commence in 2023. Several more states have considered legislation for automatic registration. On August 28, 2017, Illinois set July 1, 2018, for implementation of automatic voter registration at motor vehicle agencies, and a year later at other state agencies.
In 2023, the Center for Election Innovation & Research conducted a study of the impact of automatic voter registration in Georgia, which has operated through the state's Department of Driver Services (DDS) since 2016. Among the key findings:
Most states require voters to register two to four weeks before an election, with cutoff dates varying from 15 to 30 days. An increasing number of states allow same-day voter registration (SDR), which enables eligible citizens to register to vote or update their registration on the same day they vote.
Same-day registration allows eligible citizens to register or update their registration at the polls or their local election office by showing valid identification to a poll worker or election official, who checks the identification, consults the registration list and, if they are not registered or the registration is out of date, registers them on the spot.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia will offer same-day voter registration for the 2024 general election, which allows any qualified resident of the state to register to vote and cast a ballot the same day.
Voter turnout is much higher in states using same-day registration than in states that do not. A 2013 report analyzing turnout in the 2012 United States presidential election had SDR states averaging at a turnout of 71%, well above the average voter turn-out rate of 59% for non-SDR states. According to official turnout data report in the 2014 edition of America Goes to the Polls, voter turnout in SDR states has averaged 10–14 percent higher than states that lack that option. A 2021 study found that same-day registration disproportionately increases turnout among young voters; young voters move more frequently, which disproportionately burdens them under traditional voter registration laws.
In many jurisdictions in the United States, registered voter must re-register to vote upon changing residential addresses (even within the same county), or changing names. In the 31 states (and District of Columbia) where voters register by political party, a voter desiring to switch party affiliation must also re-register to vote in closed primaries.
Some jurisdictions have automatic voter re-registration whereby existing registrants are automatically re-registered after changing home addresses. A 2022 study found that automatic voter re-registration would increase voter turnout in the US by 5.8 percentage points.
This type does transfer some data from DMV electronically to election officials. For instance, name, age and address. However, does not fully meet the definition of an fully automated system, because it is still relying on paper forms in some way.
As of 2014, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, and Texas allow registered voters who have moved within the state to update their registrations when they vote, and are given a regular ballot when they vote. Florida briefly allowed any registered voter who moved to another county and another voting precinct to vote by provisional ballot, except if "the precinct to which you have moved has an electronic poll book or you are an active military member", in which case the voter was given a regular ballot when they voted. As of 2014, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, and Utah allow registered voters who have moved within the state or the District of Columbia to vote in their new county without re-registering at their new address, but they can only vote a provisional ballot, which could require further action from the voter before it is counted.
Preregistration allows individuals younger than 18 years of age to register to vote, but not to actually vote until they reach 18. All states have some form of preregistration, starting at age 16, except for North Dakota which does not have any registration.
A voter registration drive is an effort undertaken by a government authority, political party or other entity to register to vote persons otherwise entitled to vote. In many jurisdictions, the functions of electoral authorities includes endeavours to get as many people to register to vote as possible. In most jurisdictions, registration is a prerequisite to a person being able to vote at an election.
In the United States, such drives are often undertaken by a political campaign, political party, or other outside groups (partisan and non-partisan), that seeks to register persons who are eligible to vote but are not registered. In all U.S. states except North Dakota, registration is a prerequisite to a person being able to vote at federal, state or local elections, as well as to serve on juries and perform other civil duties. Sometimes these drives are undertaken for partisan purposes, and target specific demographic groups considered to be likely to vote for one candidate or other; on the other hand, such drives may be undertaken by non-partisan groups and targeted more generally.
In 2004, the Nu Mu Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity held a voter registration drive in DeKalb County, Georgia, from which Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox (Dem.) rejected all 63 voter registration applications because the fraternity did not obtain specific pre-clearance from the state to conduct their drive. Nu Mu Lambda filed Charles H. Wesley Education Foundation v. Cathy Cox (Wesley v. Cox) asserting that the Georgia's long-standing policy and practice of rejecting mail-in voter registration applications that were submitted in bundles, by persons other than registrars, deputy registrars, or "authorized persons", violated the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by undermining voter registration drives. A senior U.S. District Judge upheld earlier federal court decisions in the case, which found that private entities have a right, under the federal law, to engage in organized voter registration activity in Georgia at times and locations of their choosing, without the presence or permission of state or local election officials.
Organizations that regularly work to register voters and promote citizens' engagement in elections include the following (some working nationally and others more locally):
In 31 states and the District of Columbia, voters are allowed to mark their party affiliation, or their unaffiliated status, on their voter registration form. In those states which host closed primaries for political parties, voters are often mandated to declare their party affiliation prior to receiving a primary ballot, whether on the day of the primary or by a prior deadline. In addition, regardless of the method of primary in these states, voters who are party-affiliated in their voter files are most often allowed to participate in intra-party elections and decision-making. Missouri, an open-primary state, became the most recent state to instate an optional party affiliation question on voter registration forms in 2023.
In some cities, people younger than 18 can vote in local elections, such as for city councils and school boards. Takoma Park, Maryland, was the first city to allow youth voting, starting in 2013. Other nearby cities, including Hyattsville, Greenbelt and Riverdale Park adopted similar measures.