Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?

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

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Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?

Voter registration

© Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Overview

In every state and the Commune of Columbia—except N Dakota—individuals who plan to vote in a federal ballot must first register to vote. However, a sizable share of eligible citizens do not register. Official statistics vary, but a conservative estimate, calculated using data from the U.Southward. Census Bureau's most recent Voting and Registration Supplement, indicates that 21.four percent were non registered to vote in 2014.ane

Registration'southward importance to the voting process and the large number of individuals who remain unregistered accept spurred several major reforms intended to increase voter registration. Most notably, the federal government'southward National Voter Registration Human activity of 1993 (NVRA) requires that states let eligible citizens to register to vote when completing other transactions at state motor vehicle and social services agencies, a provision unremarkably known as Motor Voter.2 Since enactment of the law, some states have expanded on this requirement by automating the Motor Voter procedure. Colorado upgraded its Motor Voter process in 2017, and Oregon became the first state to implement automated voter registration in 2016, with at to the lowest degree six more planning to implement similar policies in the hereafter.iii Other states offer Aforementioned Day Registration, which allows individuals to register and vote on Election Twenty-four hours, often right at their polling places.four

Despite these efforts, fiddling is known about eligible but unregistered U.Southward. citizens' exposure to opportunities to register, reasons for choosing not to, or attitudes toward the balloter organisation and civic engagement, or how many of them are interested in registering in the time to come. To begin to fill this gap, The Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned a nationally representative survey conducted in March and Apr 2016 that included a large population of unregistered individuals. This chartbook presents findings from the survey well-nigh 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 take been offered the take a chance to register at a motor vehicle or other government agency.
  • The unregistered were more likely to say they practice non vote because they dislike politics or believe voting will not brand a difference, while people who are registered but vote infrequently say they practice not vote more often because they are not informed enough near the candidates or issues.
  • At least xiii percentage of the unregistered, mostly those who are younger and more civically engaged, say they could exist motivated to register in the future.

Voting registration

Because the American voting organization requires individuals to register earlier they can vote, many political campaigns, nonprofits, religious organizations, and other groups concord voter registration drives. Despite these well-publicized efforts, more than sixty percent of adult citizens have never been asked to register to vote, and the rate was nigh identical among individuals who are and are not registered.5 Among respondents who had been invited to register, the nearly probable context was past an official at a motor vehicle agency, social service agency, or other government role. Nonetheless, less than 20 pct of all those surveyed reported such an occurrence, which indicates that the NVRA has not been successful at reaching a large pct of the population.

Voting registration

Forty-4 percent of eligible unregistered individuals say they do not desire to vote. Some other 27 percentage say they intend to register but haven't done and so withal, and 25 percent say they are unregistered because they have not been inspired past a candidate or issue. 11 per centum practise not want to annals due to privacy or security reasons. The survey was conducted earlier revelations in fall 2016 that hackers had targeted data from state voter registration systems, and then the results do non reflect the public concern about the security of voter data that adult tardily in the entrada.6

Voting registration

The unregistered are more likely to bespeak a wide distaste for the electoral system than registered individuals, who tend to give election-specific motives for nonvoting, such as disliking the candidates or not knowing enough about the issues. Forty per centum of the unregistered say their aversion to politics is a major reason they don't want to vote, and 35 percent say voting has little to do with the way real decisions are made, compared with twenty and 19 percentage of registered just infrequent voters, respectively.

Previous research has institute that many unregistered students experience they should not vote considering they are insecure near their political noesis.vii However, this survey found that only 17 percent of the unregistered population chose not to vote because they are likewise uninformed about the candidates or problems to make skillful decisions, compared with more twice that corporeality—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 case, in 2016, approximately threescore percent of eligible citizens voted in the presidential election, just in the 2014 congressional races, turnout was less than 40 per centum.viii To better empathise how the unregistered population compares with these different groups of voters, the survey asked respondents to think about the various types of elections and evaluate how frequently they have voted since they were first eligible.ix Based on measures of people'due south interest in authorities, electric current events, and political problems, unregistered individuals differ very little from those who are registered simply rarely or never cast a ballot, while frequent voters are more than three times as likely every bit the unregistered to limited interest in authorities.

Voting registration

Despite not participating in elections, 43 per centum of the unregistered and 59 percent of rare or nonvoters say they care a good deal who wins the presidential election. These groups expressed far less interest in the outcome of congressional races and presidential primaries, while frequent voters care about the winner of all three types of elections at very high rates. Although some of the unregistered may care who governs, many of these respondents yet were non interested in participating in choosing the president: Merely 38 percent said they intended to register but had non done so at the time of the survey, and 32 per centum said they did not want to vote, probably considering of their full general conventionalities that voting is asunder from the way real decisions are made and their feeling that i vote would not impact the issue of the election. (See Figure 3.)

Voting registration

Voters diverge significantly from the unregistered in terms of their views about the behaviors that are necessary for a person to be considered a skillful citizen. Jury service was the most normally selected beliefs for good citizens across groups at 69 percent of all respondents. However, beyond groups, the priority on jury duty differed widely: Just 46 percent of the unregistered identified this equally an essential responsibleness of practiced citizenship, compared with 87 percent of frequent voters. Voters and the unregistered tended to exist more than agreeing about behaviors such equally volunteering time to help others. 60-four per centum of frequent voters and 48 percentage of the unregistered said volunteering is something that a person should practice to be a good denizen. Voting in elections and paying attending to politics were the two behaviors about which voters and the unregistered population differed near. Frequent voters were more than three times as likely as the unregistered to say voting is something that skillful citizens should practice.

Voting registration

An private's belief that he or she is qualified to empathise and participate in politics is considered a fundamental metric for inferring date in the political system.x All groups, except the almost frequent voters, reported that the rules of government are difficult to understand at roughly similar— and high—rates. But when asked if voting could influence the style the regime is run, the unregistered and rare or nonvoters both tended to say it does not, which very clearly diverged from more frequent voters, who largely said voting does touch governance.

Voting registration

Most people, including more than 80 percent of the unregistered population, said they could take at to the lowest degree a small positive touch on on their communities. Occasional, semifrequent, and frequent voters were all about likely to say they could accept 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 take but a small affect.

Voting registration

Given that nonvoters and the unregistered take limited conviction in their power to affect their communities, the fact that they are less likely to engage in civic and volunteer activities than groups who vote more oft is not surprising. Across unlike types of activities, the unregistered and nonvoters participate more frequently in those that are non political in nature. Simply 1 percent of the unregistered have donated money to a political candidate or organization, and just 5 percent accept attended a customs meeting. However, 15 percent accept done unpaid volunteer work. The civic behaviors of the unregistered population did not differ significantly from those of respondents who rarely or never vote and, in some cases, occasional voters were virtually as disengaged.

Voting registration

Among the unregistered population, responses differed about possibly registering to vote in the time to come. Overall, 43 percent of the unregistered said nothing would motivate them to register, 13 percent said something might, and 44 percent were undecided. Those who were open to registration tended to be younger: Forty-six per centum of those who said they would register were between 18 and 29 years old, compared with 21 per centum ages 45 to 59 and just eleven pct lx or older.

Voting registration

Among the unregistered, those who said they would register reported patterns of civic date that closely resembled those observed for occasional or semifrequent voters. 14 percent of unregistered individuals who said they would register and semifrequent voters had worked informally to solve a problem in their community, and 21 and 27 pct of those groups, respectively, had engaged in economic protest. Similarly, 27 per centum of those who would register had done unpaid volunteer piece of work, 6 per centum had contributed coin to a candidate, and eight percent had attended a community meeting, all which closely runway the rates among occasional voters (25 percent, half-dozen percentage, and seven percent, respectively. Run into Figure 9.)

Conclusion

The unregistered differ in many ways from those who vote often: They are less interested in politics, less engaged in civic activities, and more cynical about their ability to understand and influence regime, but they are non appreciably unlike 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 similar to occasional and semifrequent voters. Further, more than forty percent of the unregistered cared who would win the presidency in 2016, and some indicated that they could be motivated to annals in the future, though many also feel that the voting process does not touch on the way governing decisions are fabricated. 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 instruction campaigns designed to highlight the significance of individual voter participation to election outcomes and the connection between local policies and issues these citizens intendance most, such as those for which they volunteer in their communities. Less than 20 percentage of this grouping has been asked to annals by a country bureau, and a substantial increase in that figure could aid to improve registration rates and electoral participation among these disconnected citizens.

Methodology

The Voting Frequency Survey was conducted online in English and Castilian from March 25 to April 19, 2016, by the GfK Group on behalf of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The total sample size was 3,763 U.S. citizens xviii years or older. GfK sampled households from its KnowledgePanel, a probability-based, nationally representative web panel. The margin of error, calculated with the pattern effect, at the 95 percent level of confidence for the total sample is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. A full methodology, including margins of fault for cardinal 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

  1. The Census Bureau calculated that 35.4 percent of eligible citizens were non registered to vote in 2014, as 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 calculation artificially inflates the percent of the population that is unregistered because information technology includes those who were not asked or did non answer the registration question in the Voting and Registration Supplement as existence unregistered. More data on the method for adjusting the registration rate can be found in The Pew Charitable Trusts, Elections Performance Index: Methodology (August 2016), http://world wide web.pewtrusts.org/~/media/avails/2016/08/epi_methodology.pdf.
  2. The National Voter Registration Deed 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 Election Day registration or had no registration requirements.
  3. National Conference of State Legislatures, "Automated Voter Registration," March eight, 2017, http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/automatic-voter-registration.aspx.
  4. National Conference of Country Legislatures, "Same Twenty-four hour period Voter Registration," January. 11, 2017, http://www.ncsl.org/enquiry/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx.
  5. Differences are inside the margins of mistake, which are 3.62 percentage points for the subgroup of unregistered respondents and 2.21 percentage points for registered voters.
  6. Eric Geller and Darren Samuelsohn, "More than Than 20 States Have Faced Major Election Hacking Attempts, DHS Says," Pol, Oct. 3, 2016, http://www.pol.com/story/2016/09/states-major-ballot-hacking-228978.
  7. D.J. Neri, Jess Leifer, and Anthony Barrows, "Graduating Students into Voters" (April 2016), http://www.aascu.org/programs/ADP/StudentsintoVoters.pdf.
  8. Michael P. McDonald, United States Elections Project,"Voter Turnout," accessed February. 6, 2017, http://world wide web.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/voter-turnout-data.
  9. The question asked: "There are many types of elections such every bit federal elections for president and members of Congress, chief elections where voters choose party nominees, local elections for city council and school board, and special elections when vacancies arise in between scheduled elections. Which best describes how oft you vote, since you became eligible? Every election without exception, Almost every election – may have missed one or 2, Some elections, Rarely, Don't vote in elections." The four frequencies of voting reflect respondents' answers to the question of how ofttimes they vote. Individuals who answered "Every election without exception" are defined every bit frequent voters, "Almost every election – may have missed 1 or 2" are semifrequent voters, "Some elections" are categorized every bit occasional voters, and the answers "Rarely" and "Don't vote in elections" were combined into a group chosen rare or nonvoters, both due to sample size and considering these two groups were about identical on central measures.
  10. Richard M. Niemi, Stephen C. Craig, and Franco Mattei, "Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Report," The American Political Scientific discipline Review 85, no. four (1991): 1407–13, doi:10.2307/1963953.

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