Is Your State Keeping People from Voting?

September 22, 2020

We believe that democracy only works when everyone’s voice is heard, which is why every single voting-age American should be able to easily and conveniently register to vote and cast a ballot.

Does this sound controversial to you? It doesn’t to us either, but some politicians out there are still trying to make voting as difficult as possible by, among other things, passing voter ID laws, closing polling places, eliminating early voting, and purging voter rolls. These policies (intentionally) hit communities of color, low-income communities, students, and the elderly hardest.

Is this what we should expect in 2020? Well, to start thinking about registration and turnout this coming November, we thought we’d take a look at the statistics from 2016. How well did your state do at getting out the vote? Scroll down and find your state find out.

In the US, there is no uniform national voting standard, which basically means that what we think of as American democracy is really more like 50 different state-level experiments in managing voting and elections. It’s confusing!

Using the 2016 election, we took a look at how each state fared at registering voters, and then at how many of those voters actually cast a ballot. Not surprisingly, state laws and policies have a big impact on those numbers.

Overall, 70.3% of the voting-age population in the United States was registered to vote in 2016, and 61.4% of those registered voters actually went out and voted. Does that sound high to you? Compared to most other developed countries, it’s not. Voter participation in the US is actually lagging far behind. Why is that?

 

As our good friend, the late Congressman John Lewis, often said, “The right to vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument we have in a democratic society. Use it.” But as he knew better than most, voter suppression tactics can make it much harder to vote than it should be. And thanks to Shelby v. Holder, the 2016 election was the first election since 1965 to be held without the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which Lewis was instrumental in passing.

It should not come as a shock to learn that the majority of states that have enacted voter-ID laws and other such restrictions are states that were, until the 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision, being overseen by the VRA. In fact, 14 states passed new restrictive laws before the 2016 election—and half of them had lower-than-average overall registration and turnout. Maybe that doesn’t sound too bad? Well, when we dug deeper into the numbers, we discovered that Black-voter turnout declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years, something that numerous studies attribute to voter-suppression tactics.

But this wasn’t something that just happened in the former Jim Crow South. Take a look at Wisconsin’s numbers in the list below. They’re pretty good! 76% registered and 71% voted! But today’s elections are typically so close that if even a relatively small number of voters are turned away from registering or voting, it can make a big difference. An analysis showed that Wisconsin’s new voter-ID law disenfranchised 200,000 people—and the president won Wisconsin by only 22,748 votes.

Looking at the 2016 election also makes something else perfectly clear: More people vote when you make registration and voting easy and hassle-free! Eleven states (along with Washington, DC) allowed same-day registration in 2016 (it’s up to 21 now), and every single one of them had higher than average turnout. Studies have estimated that if every state in the US had allowed same-day registration in 2016, the overall turnout would have increased by about 5 million voters. It’s amazing what happens when states enact voting-friendly policies! Vote by mail (Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) states saw higher participation rates as well. And Oregon was also the only state in 2016 to have automatic voter registration (AVR), which contributed to increased turnout.

This year, more people than ever (up to three-quarters of the electorate) will be allowed to vote by mail. More states than ever are using automatic voter registration. Forty states, plus DC, are letting voters cast a ballot early. And Florida passed an amendment in 2018 that finally ended felony disenfranchisement in the state, restoring the vote to 1.4 million citizens. These are just some of the ways that states can make it easier for all of us to vote, but they’re a good start.

If you believe that our government should represent all of us, that democracy is stronger when we all get a chance to participate, then the most important thing we can do this November is VOTE! Not sure if you’re registered? Check your status here, then make your voice heard on November 3^rd!

Find your state below to check out its voter registration and turnout numbers from 2016:

Alabama

69.2% of potential voters registered

57.4% of registered voters voted

 

Alaska

71.3% of potential voters registered

61.3% of registered voters voted

 

Arizona

68.6% of potential voters registered

60.4% of registered voters voted

 

Arkansas

68.8% of potential voters registered

58.7% of registered voters voted

 

California

64.7% of potential voters registered

57.9% of registered voters voted

 

Colorado

74.3% of potential voters registered

69.5% of registered voters voted

 

Connecticut

71.0% of potential voters registered

63.9% of registered voters voted

 

Delaware

72.8% of potential voters registered

62.3% of registered voters voted

 

Florida

66.6% of potential voters registered

59.5% of registered voters voted

 

Georgia

69.4% of potential voters registered

60.2% of registered voters voted

 

Hawaii

54.4% of potential voters registered

47.3% of registered voters voted

 

Idaho

68.7% of potential voters registered

62.1% of registered voters voted

 

Illinois

74.3% of potential voters registered

63.8% of registered voters voted

 

Indiana

68.8% of potential voters registered

58.3% of registered voters voted

 

Iowa

72.3% of potential voters registered

63.4% of registered voters voted

 

Kansas

70.9% of potential voters registered

61.3% of registered voters voted

 

Kentucky

69.4% of potential voters registered

57.0% of registered voters voted

 

Louisiana

73.0% of potential voters registered

61.6% of registered voters voted

 

Maine

80.0% of potential voters registered

72.7% of registered voters voted

 

Maryland

74.9% of potential voters registered

65.8% of registered voters voted

 

Massachusetts

73.7% of potential voters registered

66.7% of registered voters voted

 

Michigan

74.1% of potential voters registered

64.3% of registered voters voted

 

Minnesota

76.7% of potential voters registered

68.7% of registered voters voted

 

Mississippi

79.5% of potential voters registered

67.7% of registered voters voted

 

Missouri

74.3% of potential voters registered

64.8% of registered voters voted

 

Montana

73.5% of potential voters registered

65.9% of registered voters voted

 

Nebraska

75.5% of potential voters registered

66.8% of registered voters voted

 

Nevada

69.4% of potential voters registered

60.5% of registered voters voted

 

New Hampshire

75.4% of potential voters registered

69.0% of registered voters voted

 

New Jersey

69.9% of potential voters registered

61.5% of registered voters voted

 

New Mexico

65.6% of potential voters registered

54.8% of registered voters voted

 

New York

66.5% of potential voters registered

57.2% of registered voters voted

 

North Carolina

74.6% of potential voters registered

67.5% of registered voters voted

 

North Dakota

75.2% of potential voters registered

64.2% of registered voters voted

 

Ohio

72.1% of potential voters registered

63.6% of registered voters voted

 

Oklahoma

67.8% of potential voters registered

56.6% of registered voters voted

 

Oregon

73.3% of potential voters registered

66.3% of registered voters voted

 

Pennsylvania

72.0% of potential voters registered

62.6% of registered voters voted

 

Rhode Island

70.3% of potential voters registered

60.6% of registered voters voted

 

South Carolina

71.6% of potential voters registered

62.1% of registered voters voted

 

South Dakota

71.4% of potential voters registered

59.1% of registered voters voted

 

Tennessee

66.7% of potential voters registered

54.0% of registered voters voted

 

Texas

67.5% of potential voters registered

55.4% of registered voters voted

 

Utah

71.0% of potential voters registered

62.7% of registered voters voted

 

Vermont

71.9% of potential voters registered

62.5% of registered voters voted

 

Virginia

75.5% of potential voters registered

68.2% of registered voters voted

 

Washington

76.5% of potential voters registered

66.3% of registered voters voted

 

Washington, DC

82.1% of potential voters registered

74.3% of registered voters voted

 

West Virginia

64.1% of potential voters registered

50.8% of registered voters voted

 

Wisconsin

76.3% of potential voters registered

70.5% of registered voters voted

 

Wyoming

71.1% of potential voters registered

64.8% of registered voters voted