FILE – Informational materials and voter registration forms on the table at a volunteer-run voter registration booth on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Photo by David Walter Banks, Getty Images)
In the weeks leading up to the election, everyone from politicians to actors to businesses will push for Americans to register to vote.
This time around is no different, and voter registration organizations say they’ve seen an uptick in registrations this election cycle.
Events like National Voter Registration Day, which was Sept. 17, make a difference. For example, the government’s website Vote.gov, which helps begin the voter registration process by state, saw a significant uptick in visits to their website on the day.
The day before, the site saw 82,279 visitors. And on National Voter Registration Day, Vote.gov received 335,968 visitors, a spokesperson told FOX Television Stations.
And Vote.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit voter registration organization, saw the largest number of new registrations the organization has garnered on any National Voter Registration Day – over 150,000.
Younger voters under the age of 35 accounted for 81% of those 150,000 new registrations, a Vote.org spokesperson told FOX Television Stations.
A larger trend
The spike in voter registration interest on National Voter Registration Day reflects a larger trend seen this election cycle.
Earlier this month, Vote.org announced it had registered more than one million voters during the 2024 election cycle – including a record-breaking percentage of younger voters under 35 compared to the 2020 election cycle.
Particularly, the number of 18-year-olds registering to vote – meaning, those that would be voting for the first time – is spiking.
Eighteen-year-olds account for more than 300,000 of Vote.org’s new registrations in 2024, or about 17%, the site said, compared to 8% in 2020.
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Taylor Swift voter registration
The impact that celebrity endorsements have had on this election cycle is undeniable.
Taylor Swift unexpectedly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the minutes following the presidential debate with Donald Trump, and urged her followers to register to vote.
Between 9 p.m. – midnight ET that evening, which spans the presidential debate and approximately the first hour after Taylor’s post, Vote.org said it saw a 585% increase in people using the tools on their website to register to vote or to verify their registration status compared to the previous week.
Vote.org told FOX Television Stations it registered over 27,000 voters and helped over 80,000 voters verify their registration status in the first 24 hours following Taylor’s post.
“Taylor Swift’s impact on voter engagement is undeniable,” said Vote.org’s CEO Andrea Hailey. “The important thing to remember is that Taylor’s work serves as a model that everyone with a platform can use to encourage Americans to participate in civic engagement. At the heart of it all, every American is an influencer and can help people around them register, vote, and protect access to the ballot box.”
Voter registration deadline
Some states allow you to register to vote on Election Day, Nov. 5, when you show up to your polling place. But others have deadlines.
You can see what your state’s law is at Vote.gov.
Time will tell, now, what the impact of these new registered voters will be. The uptick could lead to record turnout, depending on how many of the new voters actually cast a ballot.
Vote.org says about 81% of the voters it registers make it to the ballot box.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, though many states allow early voting either in-person or by mail.
