US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot AccessOne group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

Jbelkin

14537

864

The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.

Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.

Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.

Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas) Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of American citizenship to vote in federal elections. Republicans claim the bill is meant to fix the virtually nonexistent "problem" of noncitizen voter fraud.

However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) slammed the bill as a "xenophobic attack" meant to silence "Black voices, brown voices, LBGTQIA+ voices, [and] young voices."

Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."

Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."

Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.

Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/u-s-voter-registration

JCstormz

tx and oh, that's good stuff

2 years ago |

GreatLarry

I moved to PA a year ago. Just registered the other day and will be voting for Kamala.

KlobberSaurus

Get registered please.

Dewdah28

And vote please.

iskallt

It's weird that you have to register to vote. In my country everyone(almost) can vote if they are a citizen

TwoNineSix

Vote like your life depends on it because it does.

SithElephant

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/preregistration-for-young-voters remembering that in most states, 17yos who turn 18 before election day can preregister.

176

Or in some cases, just register. (some states, substantially younger, but of course they won't be voting this time)

SteveMND

Registration is great. Now we just need to make sure they all VOTE.

itsjustplaid

This year, and in future years, in every election great or small, hopefully while researching their candidates. /brokenrecord

Sabz5150

Oh they want proof of citizenship and ID until its Euunis out in Podunk who votes Republican EVERY TIME but doesn't have ID because "she was driving before those things". THEN we wanna make excuses.

fsharpminor3s

TX, Fuck yeah! get rid of Raphael!

relsky

Good GOD, I hope the dems learn from this. Running an ancient, centrist fucker (who did a surprisingly goof job) doesn't fucking work in the age of the dying boomer.

And I hope we win this year, because the alternative gets uncomfortable...

Seems to be working for the Republicans.

Different motivations. They want to rule.

Shoutrr

it's nice that they finally decided to join in and take an interest in their own fucking survival.

Kerryblue

Hope the majority of these voters are registering as Democrats

sowhat4

So, any bets on how many days it takes for the GQP to start whining about returning to the age of 21 in order to vote?

DrIvoRobotnik

How many voters usually register between July 21 and 27 of an election year?

I'm glad people are registering to vote. Wish they would've done it earlier but better they do it now and show up this election (and hopefully all others after that).

StarscreamAndHutch

TX was the largest increase. Unfortunately, we will never get out of this situation now. Hopefully Allred can push turd cruz out of the senate. Ill take that win.

HeShallKnowYourWaysAsIfBornToThem

100,000 down 99,900,000 to go. Keep it up, you have 101 more days to keep registering.

Sw1ftTurtle

Flip Texas

pritolus

Everyone please check your registration, I'm seeing lots of people discovering they're no longer registered for either no reason or some bs reason. This is 100% part of the GOP voter suppression tactics

TofuGolem

1. Trump will definitely lose the election.
2. He will probably become president anyway.

Prepare for a fight.

KawaiiInari

Vote Vote VOTE!

RadioactiveNerfDart

I have so many illegal fireworks set aside for the glorious day that traitor finally drops dead of a pants-shitting stroke, hopefully on live tv.

Audasity

oooohhhhh thats a good idea! i live on a street with a few trumpers on it

Are the fireworks for before or after he dies?

IAmTheBadW01f

That "list of top states" reads pretty much like a list of highest population states lol

ElroydIsGone

LOL, as usual, there's an xkcd for that: https://xkcd.com/1138/

Bunnies007

My fear is that a lot of those newly registered are Republicans who fear that Harris has a better chance of beating Trump than Biden did.

Blakeadelic

Keep pushing!! If only TX would finally flip. We’ve talked about it for years. If memory serves, if Republicans lose Texas, there is no path to victory. Electing Kamala and getting rid of Cruz would be AMAZING

This is why the whole Texas secession thing will never happen.

That’s a fair point. But I wonder what red states will do if Kamala wins. They sure seem anxious to secede and repeat the mistakes of the past.

Absolutely nothing. They couldn't support themselves and would be in ruins within two years. Trade pacts and military alliances don't automatically form once a new nation is created, nor does infrastructure independent of the rest of the US. It sounds good to puff your chest and beat great-grandaddy's drum, but the people would be in squalor worse than they are now. Imagine all the farmers losing subsidies, the loss of internet access, hell the grid. Its a lot more than "blackjack and hookers".

oh wow, two of those states actually matter.

emanymtonsisiht

TX, FL, OH, GA and NC were all republican last elections, right? (Not an American)

Yes. But the chance of them flipping is very low. 49.9% of the vote and 0% are the same outcome.

True, but what I really meant was; As someone not from the USA, I don't know WHICH of these states are the two that actually matter. Could you enlighten me, please?

ghostofdragon

I’ve been encouraging the young people on my caseload to register and to request a mail in (PA amended mail ins recently [in the past couple years] so anything to help reduce the linessssss). Speaking of tho, I moved recently so I need to update… all of my stuff lol

AtomicChipmunk

It's 2024... the fact that we don't just vote by social security number online is dumb.

rshini

I'd rather *not* do it that way, security is too fucking fucky

[deleted]

2 years ago (deleted Jul 27, 2024 5:37 PM) |

A white in?

Dimestream

No, that actually DOES encourage fraud. Automatic registration via SSN yes, making election day a national holiday, and maybe even compulsory voting, would all be better. Increasing ease of access is good so long as it doesn't weaken security, and paper ballots still work GREAT for that.

jekath

As an IT dude, that's a hard no. People suggest it here in Denmark now and then and we have a secure electronic ID. Still a resounding NO.
There's no securing secrecy. I could force my wife and kids to vote how I liked. And the transparency is sub par. Anyone should be able to see and understand how an election is done. See ballots, understand the counting. Understanding code and communication and databases...its very hard.

Jimmah1

Yeah as another person in the field, your stuff is relatively safe, but not as safe as most people think it is.

animi

As another person in the field, "safe" is what we're told/what we say it is.

mrgreen326

Hopefully there's a team working on this for future elections

PleaseRespectMyAsshole

After the shit show caused by the GQP in 2020, I doubt we'll see any kind of online voting in the near future.

hyperchondriac

How many times has your social security number been compromised by a healthcare breach? For myself and may others, the answer is several.

Zero, I'm not a woman, and I don't live in Texas or Florida... so I'm not the target customer for theft.

I didn't say targeted. Sensitive identifiers like social security number have been compromised for wide swaths of American public by large corporations multiple times. Security around online voting would need to be much more sophisticated than entering a SS number.

rainehdaze

Nah. Centralised online voting for something like this is a _terrible_ idea; it's too big a target and one security flaw could give someone complete control over the outcome of an election. Paper ballots are actually remain the best way… but automatic registration should certainly be in place.

jetah

how many ballot machine manufactures are there?

Kind of irrelevant if they're not constantly networked and feeding results somewhere that can be tampered with, though they're a bit of a waste.

SSN can be purchased.

Really?

NooPogodi

There's a legitimate chance that Texas will turn blue

JohnnyLawlessEsq

Nah. People have been saying that for decades. Won't happen for a long time.

wherethehorriblethingsare

Then the Texas legislature will award the electoral votes to the orange turd anyway.

Munchman347

It's largest Cities already are, that's why the Rep-Cons Gerrymandered the shit out of the mostly POC Dem voting areas...

Gerokeymaster

I'd love for FL to swap back, too. We have the third highest number of registered democrats in the country, but national-level campaigning groups treat us like we're a guaranteed R win, so we get very little of the support and organizing we need to properly mobilize those voters to actually fix things. But maybe if we get seen as a swing state again that'll change...

AMercer

Make it blue again. It used to be a Democrat state. It is time to vote the greedy bastards out.

The last time it was a Democrat state, the Democrats were advocating for segregation.

Abbott, Cruz, and the rest of them are absolute demons

BabyWitchErika

The best thing would be from democrat to win with like 80+% and compltely delete the republican party.

Then the democrat can later splinter into 2, it's left and right wing are far more reasonable political parties.

I truly wish that both the US and Canada can have multiple parties that span the range from left to (center in my ideality) right (realistically)

Comments (93)