How Many Eligible Voters Are Registered

Why Are Millions of Citizens Non Registered to Vote?

A survey of the civically unengaged finds they lack interest, but outreach opportunities exist

Issue Brief June 21, 2017 Read fourth dimension:

Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?

Voter registration

Overview

In every country and the District of Columbia—except North Dakota—individuals who program to vote in a federal election must start annals to vote. However, a sizable share of eligible citizens exercise not register. Official statistics vary, merely a conservative estimate, calculated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's nearly contempo Voting and Registration Supplement, indicates that 21.4 percent were non registered to vote in 2014.¹

Registration'southward importance to the voting process and the big number of individuals who remain unregistered have spurred several major reforms intended to increment voter registration. Most notably, the federal authorities's National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) requires that states allow eligible citizens to annals to vote when completing other transactions at land motor vehicle and social services agencies, a provision commonly known every bit Motor Voter.² Since enactment of the law, some states have expanded on this requirement by automating the Motor Voter process. Colorado upgraded its Motor Voter process in 2017, and Oregon became the first state to implement automated voter registration in 2016, with at least half-dozen more planning to implement similar policies in the hereafter.³ Other states offer Same Twenty-four hours Registration, which allows individuals to register and vote on Election Mean solar day, frequently right at their polling places.⁴

Despite these efforts, little is known nearly eligible but unregistered U.S. citizens' exposure to opportunities to register, reasons for choosing not to, or attitudes toward the electoral organization and borough engagement, or how many of them are interested in registering in the futurity. To brainstorm to fill this gap, The Pew Charitable Trusts deputed a nationally representative survey conducted in March and April 2016 that included a large population of unregistered individuals. This chartbook presents findings from the survey about the attitudes and experiences of those who said they were not registered to vote in the months preceding the 2016 presidential election, including:

Less than 20 percent of eligible citizens accept been offered the chance to register at a motor vehicle or other authorities bureau.
The unregistered were more likely to say they practise not vote because they dislike politics or believe voting will not make a difference, while people who are registered simply vote infrequently say they do not vote more often considering they are not informed enough about the candidates or bug.
At least thirteen percent of the unregistered, generally those who are younger and more civically engaged, say they could be motivated to register in the futurity.

Voting registration

Because the American voting organization requires individuals to register before they tin can vote, many political campaigns, nonprofits, religious organizations, and other groups hold voter registration drives. Despite these well-publicized efforts, more than threescore per centum of adult citizens take never been asked to annals to vote, and the charge per unit was nearly identical amongst individuals who are and are not registered.⁵ Amid respondents who had been invited to register, the almost likely context was past an official at a motor vehicle agency, social service agency, or other government role. Withal, less than 20 percent of all those surveyed reported such an occurrence, which indicates that the NVRA has not been successful at reaching a large percentage of the population.

Voting registration

Forty-four percent of eligible unregistered individuals say they practise not desire to vote. Some other 27 per centum say they intend to register but haven't done so yet, and 25 percent say they are unregistered because they have non been inspired by a candidate or issue. Xi per centum do not want to annals due to privacy or security reasons. The survey was conducted before revelations in autumn 2016 that hackers had targeted information from land voter registration systems, so the results do non reflect the public concern about the security of voter data that developed tardily in the entrada.⁶

Voting registration

The unregistered are more likely to indicate a broad distaste for the electoral system than registered individuals, who tend to give ballot-specific motives for nonvoting, such as disliking the candidates or non knowing plenty about the issues. Forty per centum of the unregistered say their disfavor to politics is a major reason they don't want to vote, and 35 percent say voting has little to practise with the fashion real decisions are fabricated, compared with twenty and nineteen percent of registered just infrequent voters, respectively.

Previous enquiry has found that many unregistered students feel they should not vote because they are insecure near their political knowledge.⁷ All the same, this survey found that only 17 percent of the unregistered population chose non to vote because they are too uninformed about the candidates or issues to make good decisions, compared with more than twice that amount—39 percent—of registered exceptional voters.

Voting registration

Some people vote in many types of races, while others turn out only for certain elections or are registered but never vote. For example, in 2016, approximately 60 percent of eligible citizens voted in the presidential election, but in the 2014 congressional races, turnout was less than twoscore per centum.⁸ To meliorate sympathise how the unregistered population compares with these unlike groups of voters, the survey asked respondents to call up almost the various types of elections and evaluate how oft they have voted since they were first eligible.⁹ Based on measures of people'due south interest in authorities, electric current events, and political issues, unregistered individuals differ very little from those who are registered but rarely or never cast a election, while frequent voters are more than three times as likely as the unregistered to express interest in government.

Voting registration

Despite not participating in elections, 43 percent of the unregistered and 59 percent of rare or nonvoters say they care a adept deal who wins the presidential election. These groups expressed far less involvement in the outcome of congressional races and presidential primaries, while frequent voters care about the winner of all 3 types of elections at very loftier rates. Although some of the unregistered may intendance who governs, many of these respondents still were not interested in participating in choosing the president: Just 38 pct said they intended to annals only had not washed then at the time of the survey, and 32 percent said they did not want to vote, probably considering of their full general belief that voting is disconnected from the way real decisions are made and their feeling that one vote would not touch the outcome of the election. (See Effigy iii.)

Voting registration

Voters diverge significantly from the unregistered in terms of their views virtually the behaviors that are necessary for a person to exist considered a good denizen. Jury service was the about unremarkably selected beliefs for expert citizens across groups at 69 percent of all respondents. However, across groups, the priority on jury duty differed widely: Simply 46 pct of the unregistered identified this equally an essential responsibility of adept citizenship, compared with 87 percentage of frequent voters. Voters and the unregistered tended to be more than like-minded near behaviors such every bit volunteering fourth dimension to help others. 60-four percent of frequent voters and 48 pct of the unregistered said volunteering is something that a person should do to be a good citizen. Voting in elections and paying attention to politics were the two behaviors about which voters and the unregistered population differed most. Frequent voters were more than three times equally likely every bit the unregistered to say voting is something that good citizens should do.

Voting registration

An private's conventionalities that he or she is qualified to understand and participate in politics is considered a primal metric for inferring engagement in the political system.^ten All groups, except the most frequent voters, reported that the rules of government are difficult to understand at roughly similar— and high—rates. Only when asked if voting could influence the way the government is run, the unregistered and rare or nonvoters both tended to say information technology does non, which very clearly diverged from more frequent voters, who largely said voting does affect governance.

Voting registration

Well-nigh people, including more than than 80 percent of the unregistered population, said they could have at least a pocket-size positive bear on on their communities. Occasional, semifrequent, and frequent voters were all most likely to say they could have a moderate effect, while rare and nonvoters were every bit likely to choose moderate or modest. The largest share of unregistered respondents said they could accept but a small impact.

Voting registration

Given that nonvoters and the unregistered have limited confidence in their ability to impact their communities, the fact that they are less likely to engage in civic and volunteer activities than groups who vote more than frequently is not surprising. Across dissimilar types of activities, the unregistered and nonvoters participate more often in those that are not political in nature. Only ane percentage of the unregistered take donated money to a political candidate or organization, and just five pct accept attended a community meeting. Still, 15 percent have done unpaid volunteer work. The civic behaviors of the unregistered population did non differ significantly from those of respondents who rarely or never vote and, in some cases, occasional voters were nearly as disengaged.

Voting registration

Among the unregistered population, responses differed virtually possibly registering to vote in the futurity. Overall, 43 percent of the unregistered said nothing would motivate them to register, xiii percent said something might, and 44 percent were undecided. Those who were open to registration tended to exist younger: Forty-six percent of those who said they would annals were between 18 and 29 years old, compared with 21 per centum ages 45 to 59 and merely 11 percent threescore or older.

Voting registration

Among the unregistered, those who said they would register reported patterns of civic engagement that closely resembled those observed for occasional or semifrequent voters. Xiv pct of unregistered individuals who said they would register and semifrequent voters had worked informally to solve a trouble in their community, and 21 and 27 percentage of those groups, respectively, had engaged in economic protestation. Similarly, 27 percent of those who would annals had done unpaid volunteer work, six pct had contributed money to a candidate, and 8 pct had attended a community meeting, all which closely track the rates amid occasional voters (25 percent, half dozen percent, and 7 percent, respectively. See Effigy ix.)

Decision

The unregistered differ in many means from those who vote oft: They are less interested in politics, less engaged in civic activities, and more than contemptuous about their power to understand and influence authorities, but they are not appreciably different on these measures from individuals who are registered but rarely vote. However, the unregistered population is not entirely unengaged from civic life; some indicated that they would register, and that group also reported participating in community or political activities at rates like to occasional and semifrequent voters. Farther, more than 40 pct of the unregistered cared who would win the presidency in 2016, and some indicated that they could be motivated to register in the hereafter, though many also feel that the voting procedure does not bear on the mode governing decisions are made. These findings suggest that opportunities be to engage segments of the unregistered population, including through consistent outreach at motor vehicle agencies as required nether the NVRA and public educational activity campaigns designed to highlight the significance of private voter participation to election outcomes and the connection between local policies and problems these citizens intendance almost, such every bit those for which they volunteer in their communities. Less than xx percent of this grouping has been asked to register by a state agency, and a substantial increase in that figure could help to improve registration rates and balloter participation among these disconnected citizens.

Methodology

The Voting Frequency Survey was conducted online in English and Spanish from March 25 to Apr 19, 2016, by the GfK Group on behalf of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The total sample size was three,763 U.S. citizens 18 years or older. GfK sampled households from its KnowledgePanel, a probability-based, nationally representative spider web panel. The margin of error, calculated with the design issue, at the 95 per centum level of conviction for the full sample is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. A full methodology, including margins of error for key subgroups, is given in Appendix A: Voting Frequency Survey Methodology, available on the chartbook webpage. The survey questions and frequencies are available in Appendix B: Voting Frequency Survey Topline.

Endnotes

The Census Bureau calculated that 35.four percent of eligible citizens were not registered to vote in 2014, every bit reported in "Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978-2014," July 16, 2015, https://www.demography.gov/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577.html. However, researchers agree that this adding artificially inflates the percent of the population that is unregistered considering it includes those who were non asked or did non reply the registration question in the Voting and Registration Supplement as being unregistered. More data on the method for adjusting the registration rate tin be found in The Pew Charitable Trusts, Elections Performance Index: Methodology (August 2016), http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/avails/2016/08/epi_methodology.pdf.
The National Voter Registration Act applies to 44 states and the Commune of Columbia. Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming are exempt because at the time the law was implemented, they offered Ballot Day registration or had no registration requirements.
National Briefing of State Legislatures, "Automatic Voter Registration," March eight, 2017, http://www.ncsl.org/enquiry/elections-and-campaigns/automatic-voter-registration.aspx.
National Conference of State Legislatures, "Same Twenty-four hours Voter Registration," January. 11, 2017, http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx.
Differences are inside the margins of error, which are 3.62 percentage points for the subgroup of unregistered respondents and two.21 per centum points for registered voters.
Eric Geller and Darren Samuelsohn, "More Than 20 States Have Faced Major Ballot Hacking Attempts, DHS Says," Politico, Oct. 3, 2016, http://www.political leader.com/story/2016/09/states-major-election-hacking-228978.
D.J. Neri, Jess Leifer, and Anthony Barrows, "Graduating Students into Voters" (April 2016), http://www.aascu.org/programs/ADP/StudentsintoVoters.pdf.
Michael P. McDonald, United states Elections Project,"Voter Turnout," accessed February. 6, 2017, http://www.electproject.org/dwelling house/voter-turnout/voter-turnout-information.
The question asked: "There are many types of elections such as federal elections for president and members of Congress, primary elections where voters choose political party nominees, local elections for city council and school board, and special elections when vacancies arise in betwixt scheduled elections. Which best describes how oft you lot vote, since yous became eligible? Every election without exception, Almost every ballot – may have missed one or two, Some elections, Rarely, Don't vote in elections." The four frequencies of voting reflect respondents' answers to the question of how oftentimes they vote. Individuals who answered "Every election without exception" are divers as frequent voters, "Virtually every election – may have missed ane or two" are semifrequent voters, "Some elections" are categorized as occasional voters, and the answers "Rarely" and "Don't vote in elections" were combined into a group called rare or nonvoters, both due to sample size and because these 2 groups were most identical on fundamental measures.
Richard G. Niemi, Stephen C. Craig, and Franco Mattei, "Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Written report," The American Political Science Review 85, no. 4 (1991): 1407–13, doi:10.2307/1963953.