Voter registration is spiking, particularly among young adults

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 5:10 a.m. ET Sept. 21, 2024 | Updated 1:19 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2024


Voter registration is breaking records as Election Day approaches, particularly among young people, many of whom are first-time voters.

On Tuesday's National Voter Registration Day more than 150,000 people registered through Vote.org, the most the organization has ever seen on that day. The organization registered 279,400 voters in all of last year. Last week, 337,826 people visited a link posted on Instagram by pop star Taylor Swift that directed them to their state's voter registration site.

Although Swift noted that she would be voting for the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, people don't have to declare a party affiliation when they register and neither vote.org nor Swift tracked registrations by party. Vote.org has previously told USA TODAY that about 80% of people they register turn out in the next election. A huge percentage of the newly registered voters are young people, many voting for the first time.

According to Vote.org, voters under 35 made up 81% of Tuesday's registrations, with the biggest spike among 18-year-olds. On this year's National Voter Registration Day, 11% of those registered were 18, which is 53% higher than on the same day four years ago. "We're really seeing a surge in 18-year-olds registering to vote." Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said. "We know that we can onboard the next generation of voters into our democracy if we can get people to register and get out to these elections."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/21/young-voter-registration-breaking-records-swift/75306021007/

[getagrip_already]

1. Note: first time voters arent being polled - they are invisible

Most of the late polling has switched over to likely voter polls.

A likely voter is defined as someone who has voted in the last 4 or 5 years.

If you havent voted before, your call will end and your answers discarded.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. Not completely true

Some pollsters have switched to a “self report” LV screening question, asking respondents “how likely are you to vote in this election?” And sorting out the “extremely likely” and “very likely” responses (or similar wording) for their LV sample.

Other pollsters are still using the “voted in past elections” screening criteria.

[moniss]

9. Yes to an extent some are trying to account for the new voters a

little but so many pollsters still define "likely voters" as those who have voted previously. Those are the ones they put on the contact list. It's why their polling has been so wrong so many times lately. Combined with their insistence over the years about using landline phone numbers they were polling for the 1950's society which was a more predictable and stable scenario than today.

They also have no way of accounting for the people who hang up on them from the get go. Those may be Dems or GQP but the prevalence of hang-ups should be telling them something. That something is that just because you can find 100 people out of 1000 who are willing to talk to you doesn't mean you can extrapolate that with accuracy to the other 900. I hang up on all pollsters and I'm sure some are Dem party pollsters. I don't believe in election polling as being a good thing for society. People should make up their own minds without the possible influence of "going with the crowd". Nobody should doubt that it plays a role. That influence factor is well known in social research circles and it forms one of the pillars of advertising and sales. There is no reason to think it stops working just because it's candidates rather than cologne or insurance policies.

[groundloop]

2. Hopefully those young voters will stay engaged and keep voting year after year.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Exactly. That's what we have to get them (and so many others) to do

Vote EVERY year. In many cases, the other "most important" elections happen during what gets minimized and dubbed as "off-year elections". But that is also when municipal, county, and state elected officials might get decided and the GOP makes sure their people are out there during those times.

[maptap22]

4. I highly doubt

That these young people are being motivated by a rambling old orange man. 🙄
The youngsters are excited by Kamala. They may save us.

[soldierant]

8. Some might be

strongly motivated by Trump** in a negative way. I don't care whether their enthusiasm is for Harris or against Trump**, or both, as long as it gets votes out.

[quakerboy]

12. maybe they are really excited

By bear murder and brain worms?

Or so the radio tried to convince me earlier today

[rurallib]

6. Watched the Walz speech at Bethlehem, Pa. today AND

the crowd looked to be pretty much under 40. Just my observation, but it really caught my attention

[speak easy]

7. Hey Trumpy: Post 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT! again

The kids are not getting the message. Shout it out loud.

[republianmushroom]

10. I do like see this.

[Cheezoholic]

11. Please, please! We desperately need the youth to rescue us from our old fart selves ;) n/t