Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

Trump’s Plan to Strip Rep. Omar of Her Citizenship Is Unconstitutional and a Threat to All of Us

JD Vance

JD Vance Tells Republicans Who America’s Real Birthright Citizens Are

If It Quacks Like a Fascist

If It Quacks Like a Fascist

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Sue New York After Being Denied the Right to Vote

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Sue New York After Being Denied the Right to Vote

Group of voters stand in line

Six Key Voting Blocs Hold the Balance of Power on Nov. 3

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

    Hands raised in the air, holding each other.​
    Ethics & Leadership

    Land of the Free, Home of the Brave? How Trump Is Destroying America's Soul

    US Flag
    Bridging & Common Ground

    This Country ’Tis of Thee Calls America to Unite Again

    U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of a landed airplane.
    Ethics & Leadership

    What Would Putin’s Puppet Do Differently?

    Read More

    An empty grocery cart in a market.

    NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposes five city-run grocery stores. See the arguments for and against, from food deserts to bodega concerns and the $70M cost.

    Getty Images, Kwangmoozaa

    Government-Owned Grocery Stores: Accessible Nutrition or Government Overreach?

    Issue Introduction

    Over the past few years, affordability has become the most central issue affecting Americans and the quality of life in the United States. The prices of groceries and basic necessities have risen 25-30% since the COVID-19 pandemic and are projected to rise another 3.2% in 2026. At the same time, the exodus of grocery chains from rural and low-income areas has scattered food deserts throughout individual states. Recent mass closures include Grocery Outlet’s shuttering of 36 stores and continued shut-downs of many Albertsons locations. These factors have led politicians to make affordability a major campaign issue.

    During his progressive campaign for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani raised the idea of opening grocery stores owned and operated by the city government to provide New Yorkers with affordable groceries. In his April 2026 public address that marked his first 100 days in office, Mayor Mamdani announced plans for the first of five city-run grocery stores. Mamdani’s proposed initiative will use $70 million in capital funding to build five city-owned municipal stores–one in each borough–and place them under control of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). NYCEDC will then select third-party operating staff in accordance with city standards for affordability and proper labor practices. Public opinion following the announcement continues to be divided between uproar and support.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    Land of the Free, Home of the Capitalism Didn’t Fail America. America Failed to Moderate Capitalism
    Monopoly's mr. monopoly in a graffiti collage
    Photo by Artur Ament on Unsplash

    Land of the Free, Home of the Capitalism Didn’t Fail America. America Failed to Moderate Capitalism

    The signs are everywhere. For many Americans, buying power has improved only modestly despite decades of economic growth. Corporate profits are at an all-time high. We have reached a level of wealth inequality last seen almost a hundred years ago. By many measures, our capitalist economy seems to have failed to deliver broadly shared prosperity.

    However, the failure isn’t with the free market as an economic approach. Instead, it’s our failure to regulate and moderate the free market, or more accurately, that we have spent 40 years undermining or removing the regulations of the New Deal that made our economy work for more Americans.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    Woman putting savings in a white piggy bank.

    America’s economy now rewards asset ownership over wages. A policy proposal: a $35,000 Birthright Account for every child, and how it could be funded.

    Guido Mieth/Getty Images

    The American Dream Needs a New Economic Operating System

    It is, by now, not an exaggeration to state that the traditional American Dream—work hard, buy a house, raise a family, and retire securely—is failing. It was built for a labor-based economy in which steadily rising wages allowed ordinary families to accumulate wealth. But America has become an asset-based economy, and ownership of those assets is extraordinarily concentrated.

    Since the 1980s, the returns from capital have far outpaced the returns from labor. Inflation-adjusted wages for ordinary workers have risen only modestly, while the real value of equities has multiplied many times over. Housing, education, healthcare and childcare costs have soared, employment has become less secure, and defined-benefit pensions have largely disappeared. Even two-income households with respectable jobs often struggle to buy a home, build savings and accumulate enough for retirement.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    © Copyright 2026