Does Same Day Registration Lead to Repeat Customers at the Ballot Box?

Abstract

Abstract

Do easier voter registration requirements improve voter turnout? Researchers have devoted much attention to laws allowing persons to complete voter registration at early voting sites and on Election Day, usually finding, at best, modest turnout increases. Nevertheless, researchers have yet to consider possible longer-term effects for the many people who do use these streamlined procedures to register. Are they as likely to vote subsequently as people who had registered at least a month before an election? Or do they vote only in the election for which they initially register and stay home during future elections? I explore this question with an empirical test of my hypotheses using the case study of North Carolina. I find that same day registrants (persons who registered at early voting sites just before the 2008 primaries and general elections) were slightly less likely to vote in the 2010 and 2012 general elections than earlier registrants. However, this disparity is larger for citizens who first voted in the presidential general election instead of the primaries. My findings suggest that voter registration procedures like same day registration (SDR) can positively impact turnout even in elections following the ones for which people initially registered. Likewise, this law can impact the outcome of close elections. This research has important implications for other changes in registration and election laws, canvassing efforts, and campaigns, especially since the Obama campaign incorporated SDR into its get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts to register its supporters and ensure that they voted early.