Tuesday marks six weeks until Election Day and is National Voter Registration Day, a moment to turbocharge sign-ups before it's too late. But the significant blow the coronavirus has dealt to civic engagement this year leaves in doubt how many millions of eligible but still unregistered Americans can be found and converted on the unofficial holiday.
Fresh national numbers from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive think tank which does some of the most extensive research on democracy's challenges, confirm the drop in registration compared to the last presidential election. The organization's analysis of 21 states found 17 have watched registration rates plummet since four year ago.
With the first deadlines coming the first week of October in 15 states, a bevy of groups with sometimes similar sounding names have refocused — or been formed — to push the uphill goal of finding millions more willing first-time voters, with an emphasis on younger people.
The Brennan Center analyzed records of the 21 states that compile monthly registration data to compare how sign-ups are trending this year compared to 2016.
The most severe drops, 87 percent, were in reliably blue Maryland and Oregon. Battleground Wisconsin had the smallest dip in registration, just 2 percent. The average decline among the states was a whopping 38 percent.
Just four states have seen increases in the past two years compared with the runup to 2016.
Another presidential tossup, Michigan, has seen a 23 percent boost in registrations. The others are reliably Republican Alaska (an astonishing 85 percent), Utah (31 percent) and Idaho (5 percent).
While it's not obvious why some states saw more success in registration than others, Covid-19 has certainly impacted the ability of many Americans to register this year. All but nine states offer online registration, which has been helpful at a time when in-person "get out the vote" events are not feasible.
Since the start of the pandemic in March, civic engagement groups have had to switch to a more digital approach for voter outreach. On National Voter Registration Day, these groups largely used social media, text and email blasts, virtual events and other online efforts to promote election participation.
RepresentUs, one of the most prominent political reform advocacy groups, is hosting a virtual roundtable Tuesday night with activists and celebrities discussing issues of democracy and racial justice. When We All Vote, a progressive voter engagement group, is hosting an all-day event on Instagram, featuring former first lady Michelle Obama.
Efforts to uplift the youth vote are also being made. Student PIRGs is enlisting its volunteers on more than 100 college campuses nationwide to help with outreach for its New Voters Project. The Alliance for Youth Action is supporting voter engagement efforts on more than 400 campuses through its Campus Takeover campaign.
Social media platforms have been involved in boosting voter registration as well. Facebook and Instagram launched a voter resource tool last month, and Twitter has promoted registration with the #VoteReady hashtag and other messaging on the platform. Users are also encouraged to share voting resources with friends and family to help increase participation.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.