How has voter registration varied by state in the US since 2020?
Executive summary
Since 2020 voter registration at the national level rose alongside record turnout in the 2020 presidential election, but the story diverges sharply by state: some states reported very high registration rates and gains, others modest increases or declines, and party composition shifted in several competitive states [1] [2] [3]. Available official time‑series tables and third‑party trackers document those differences but also leave gaps — states publish at different cadences and with different levels of partisan detail, so cross‑state comparisons require careful caveats [4] [5] [6].
1. What the data infrastructure shows and its limits
Federal and academic sources provide repeated cross‑state snapshots: the Census Bureau’s Voting and Registration supplements and downloadable tables supply reported registration by state through the 2022 cycle (P20 and historical tables) and ongoing releases for 2024+, but these are staggered and often reported on different denominators (citizen voting‑age population vs. voting‑eligible population) which complicates direct comparisons across years and states [1] [4] [5]. Movement Advancement Project and other aggregators published state registration‑rate maps for 2020 that group states by registration share, but they rely on underlying state files and the U.S. Election Project’s VEAP estimates, introducing methodological variation versus raw state rolls [7].
2. National swing in 2020, then divergent state paths
Nationally 2020 produced the highest turnout of the 21st century and broad increases in registration and participation versus 2016, a pattern visible across states though the magnitude varied; many states entered 2024 with more registered voters than in early‑2020, but that net growth masks local declines, purge cycles, or plateaus in some jurisdictions [1] [2] [3]. Official Census time‑series tables show state‑by‑state registration counts up through 2022, and other trackers continued to record differing trajectories in 2023–25 with some states expanding rolls and others seeing contractions, especially where administrative maintenance or demographic shifts accelerate removals [4] [5].
3. High‑registration states vs. laggards
A set of states and DC reported registration rates above roughly 85–89% of the voting‑eligible population in 2020, while a different cluster remained below 85%, according to Movement Advancement Project’s mapping of 2020 rates; this geographic clustering reflects both demographics and policy choices such as automatic registration and outreach [7]. Public summaries and state dashboards compiled by groups like KFF and independent projects show continued variation: some Sun Belt and Rust Belt states added large numbers of registrants since 2020 while others — often with more transient populations or stricter maintenance procedures — saw flatter rolls [8] [2].
4. Party composition changed in key battlegrounds
Where states publish party‑by‑party registration, notable shifts since 2020 are visible: MIT Election Lab and media analyses found Republican registration gains in several battlegrounds between 2020 and 2024 while Democrats held or lost ground depending on state and timing, and unaffiliated registrations rose broadly [6]. Reporting on swing states highlights specific patterns: Florida and Arizona saw GOP registration gains in multiple reports, North Carolina showed increasing GOP and independent registrations with Democratic rolls falling from a 2020 peak, and Michigan’s registration increased overall — yet many large states (Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan in some releases) publish totals without consistent partisan breakdowns, limiting definitive cross‑state partisan claims [6] [9].
5. Laws and administrative changes that moved the needle
Policy changes since 2020 have altered how registrations grow: New York enacted automatic voter registration in December 2020 with implementation timelines into the following years, Texas began limited online registration after a 2020 judicial order, and North Dakota remains the lone state without traditional voter registration — differences that tangibly shape state registration rates and the composition of rolls [10] [11]. States that adopted or expanded online registration, same‑day registration, preregistration, and vote‑by‑mail infrastructure tended to see easier inflows onto rolls around high‑interest cycles, a pattern cited by multiple aggregators and explanatory summaries [2] [11].
6. What the coverage often overlooks and how to read it
Most reporting aggregates headline gains or partisan narratives but understates measurement issues: states differ in update frequency, in how they count removals and inactive voters, and in whether they publish party breakdowns — and the authoritative Census tables, while comprehensive through 2022, lag real‑time state files that some analysts (MIT Election Lab, state SOS dashboards) scrape weekly for 2024 dynamics [4] [5] [6] [12]. Given those constraints, the clearest, evidence‑based conclusion is that voter registration growth since 2020 was real at the national level but highly uneven across states and partially driven by policy changes, administrative maintenance, and partisan recruitment — with important gaps remaining where states do not release comparable data [1] [4] [6].