Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
USA Presidential voters on electoral college map

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Federalism at Its Best

​People arrive at a polling location on the first day of early voting in Texas

Early voting records should scare GOP

​Border patrol SUV

How Border Policies Are Reshaping South Texas Politics

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico

Are Independent Voters About to Flip Texas?

US Senate candidate Dan Osborn

7 Independent Campaigns to Watch in the Final Days of the Midterms

The 5 states with the biggest (and smallest) increases in voter registration

Voter registration table

Washington, D.C., saw the nation's biggest increase in voter registration from 2016 to 2020.

Caroline Brehman/Getty Images
Sara Swann
By Sara SwannAug 20, 2021
Sara Swann

As a staff writer, Sara covers a variety of democracy reform issues, including voting rights, money in politics, gerrymandering and civic education. Prior to joining The Fulcrum in May 2019, Sara reported on local government on Maryland's Eastern Shore for the USA Today network. She is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Syracuse University.

See More Writings by author

Despite the coronavirus pandemic throwing election administrators and voters for a loop in 2020, nearly every state reported increases in the number of registered voters compared to the previous presidential contest. A few grew their voter rolls by more than 20 percent.

Overall, the United States added nearly 14 million voters to the rolls, a 6.5 percent bump from 2016. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia reported their voter registration data to the Election Assistance Commission, which released the numbers in its post-election report this week. (North Dakota does not require voter registration.)

Thirty-two states and D.C. reported registration rates higher than the national average, while 18 states fell below that mark.

These states (and D.C.) saw the biggest increases in registered voters from 2016 to 2020:

  • District of Columbia, 27 percent
  • South Carolina, 22 percent
  • Nevada, 21 percent
  • Utah, 18 percent
  • Texas, 18 percent

But some states saw minimal growth, or even declines, in voter registration:

    • New York, -16 percent
    • Indiana, -3 percent
    • Iowa, 1 percent
    • Louisiana, 1 percent
    • West Virginia, 1 percent

    Latest news

    Nigeria flag, elections, ballot box, casting vote.
    Elections

    As Nigeria Prepares to Vote, Years of U.S. Democracy Support Face a New Test

    Headshots of people
    Elections

    Taxpayer-Funded, Closed to Millions: The Growing Push to Reform Kentucky’s Primaries

    A male senior stands in the shadow of a Social Security card with bite missing.
    Economy

    Will the Debt Crisis Engineered by Republicans Succeed in Cutting Social Security and Medicare?

    Read More

    ​Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump followed by Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan and U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrive for a state dinner at the White House.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump followed by Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan and U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrive for a state dinner in the East Room of the White House on September 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.

    Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    When Leaders Disagree, Ceremony Plays an Important Role

    When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at the White House on 24 September, the U.S. welcomed him with an elaborate display of ceremony. The Army Herald Trumpets sounded a fanfare, the Chinese and American national anthems were played, and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps performed. A military review was followed by a flyover involving a B-2 bomber and four F-22 fighter jets, according to the White House. It was an extraordinary production for two countries that still disagree on some of the most important issues in international politics.

    Talks between President Donald Trump and Xi touched on trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan. The visit was marked by warm words and some signs of cooperation, but it did not erase the fundamental competition between the United States and China. So why was all this ceremony staged? It is tempting to dismiss political pomp as mere window dressing: an expensive historical relic surrounding the serious business taking place behind closed doors. As a music historian, however, I think this misunderstands what ceremony does. Ceremony can become particularly valuable when words alone are not enough.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    Americans Voting in an Election

    Americans Voting in an Election

    Getty Images

    Voting Is Not Just a Privilege It Is Every Citizens’ Responsibility

    Despite the consistent determinations that US elections are secure across the country and there is virtually no evidence of non-citizens voting, in reports released as recently as September 2026; President Trump has doubled down on his claims that voter fraud is a major problem in America and on October 20th, he announced a new $25 Million Fraud Whistleblower program to be administered by the Department of Justice.

    This announcement achieves a variety of the president’s goals: (i) It intentionally perpetuates the misinformation, that voter fraud is a serious problem in the United States; (ii) it undermines the trust in the voting systems, as well as in the states administering the elections; (iii) it fosters distrust amongst neighbors, who are more likely to suspect people of color and report them for a reward. This has the concomitant benefit of (iv) intimidating people who are in fear of going to the polls and (v) It gives the illusion that the federal government is prepared to give away more free money (along with the Tariff rebate checks, the Trump Accounts, the DOGE dividend, the direct payments for healthcare and the $5,000 for supporting GOP midterm candidates.)

    Keep ReadingShow less
    Capitol building with American flag behind it

    Political Polarization and Extremism

    Getty Images

    Both Parties Have Forgotten How to Lose: It’s Time for Guardrails

    On November 3 Americans vote in the midterm elections, and the most important question may be whether the losers accept the result. A Pew survey this summer found that just 55 percent of Americans are confident the midterms will be run fairly and accurately, down from 64 percent in 2022. The partisan detail is more revealing. Since 2024, Republican confidence has risen and Democratic confidence has fallen from 77 percent to 58 percent. Trust in the referee now depends on who holds power.

    Democracy rests on a kind of sportsmanship agreement. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it well: man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but his inclination to injustice makes it necessary. B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of India’s constitution, called democracy a method of bringing revolutionary change without bloodshed. Both understood that the system works only if the losing side agrees to try again next time instead of burning down the field. Americans in both parties are forgetting how to do that.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    © Copyright 2026