Voter registration in the United States

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In the United States, it is not a legal requirement for otherwise eligible persons to register to vote. However, all states and territories, except North Dakota, require voter registration by an eligible citizens before they can vote in federal, state and local elections. In North Dakota, cities in the state may register voters for city elections,^[1] and in other cases voters must provide identification and proof of entitlement to vote at the polling place before being permitted to vote. Voter registration takes place at the county level in many states or at the municipal level in several states. Many states set cutoff dates for registration or to update details, ranging from two to four weeks before an election, while 25 states and Washington, D.C. have same-day voter registration, which enables eligible citizens to register or update their registration on the same day they cast their vote.^[2] In states that permit early voting, and have voter registration, the prospective voter must be registered before casting a vote.

Some historical registration requirements, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, were part of the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Jim Crow South.

More recently, several common misconceptions have developed around the supposed consequences of registering to vote—that it exposes the person to the military draft, or affects car insurance rates, or requires a permanent address. Despite being untrue, these beliefs are sometimes deterrents for registration.^[3] The impact and fairness of other requirements, such as voter identification laws, are the subject of ongoing debate.^[4]

The legal case Pitts v. Black in 1984 established that eligible American voters residing in non-conventional accommodations, like a park bench, cannot be refused to register to vote, allowing people experiencing homelessness to participate in elections.^[5]

A 2023 study by the U.S. Census Bureau found that 69.1% of the voting-eligible population in the United States were registered to vote at the time of the 2022 midterm elections, some 178 million U.S. citizens.^[6]

While voters were historically required to register at government offices by a certain date before an election, the federal government in the mid-1990s made efforts to increase turnout by easing the registration process. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the "Motor Voter" law) requires state governments to either provide uniform opt-in registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, and mail-in registration, or to allow Election Day voter registration, where voters can register at polling places immediately prior to voting.

In 2016, Oregon became the first state to make voter registration fully automatic (opt-out) when issuing driver licenses and ID cards, since followed by 15 more states and the District of Columbia. Political parties and other organizations sometimes hold voter registration drives to register new voters.

In 31 states and the District of Columbia, persons registering to vote may at the same time declare an affiliation with a political party.^[7]