The State of Voter Registration Research

Inaccurate voter registration lists increase barriers to participation, burden election officials, and fuel concerns about election integrity. While the scholarly literature on voter registration is outdated and insufficient, it still provides useful evidence about how to increase the number of citizens who are registered to vote at their current residence. Based on this literature, policies that shift the burden of initiating or updating voter registration from individuals to the government will likely be most effective. Most importantly, election officials should pursue ways to increase the number of individuals who initiate or update their voter registrations during transactions at their state’s motor vehicles agency. Other promising policies include automatically transferring voter registrations based on National Change of Address data, Election Day registration, and allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote.