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

US Senate candidate Dan Osborn

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

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

Early voting records should scare GOP

President Donald Trump

Trump doesn’t care about the midterms. You should

Smoke hangs over the city against a twilight sky following an explosion during an air raid alert on October 2, 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine

Axis of Aggressors: How Four U.S. Adversaries Strengthen Each Other

The 19 states where it's never too late to register

state that allow voter registration on Election Day

The 19 states in green (plus Washington, D.C.) will allow eligible residents to register to vote and then cast ballots on Election Day this year.

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumOct 14, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
See More Writings by author

October is the last chance for most Americans to register if they want to vote for president this year. But 86 million eligible Americans, or one-third of the national total, can even sign up — and then proceed to cast a ballot — on Election Day.

That's because they live in the 19 states (plus D.C.) that allow what's known as same-day registration. Eligible residents will be able to show up at their neighborhood polling places on Nov. 3 and, so long as they can prove who they are and where they live, will be allowed to register and then head into a voting booth.

Granting as much time as possible for registration means potential voters won't be turned away due to a missed deadline or technical difficulties.

In Congress, the House last year voted to mandate same-day registration nationwide, as part of the Democrats' sweeping political reform package known as HR 1. The Republican Senate has shelved the bill.

The five presidential battlegrounds, with a combined 46 votes in the Electoral College, that have same-day registration are Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota (one of the first states to allow the practice, back in 1974) and Michigan (one of the newest, only since 2018). Also on the list is Maine, which awards electoral votes unusually and where President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are in a tossup for one of the four votes.

Another presidential tossup, North Carolina, allows people to register and vote during the in-person early voting period, which starts Thursday, but not on Election Day itself.

Most of the same day-places are reliably in Biden's corner: California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Vermont and Washington. Another regularly blue state, New Mexico, will institute same-day registration starting next year.

Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming are the others, which Trump looks to be able to count on winning no matter how many people show up to register and vote on Election Day.


Latest news

Oil and Energy Crisis Concept on chart over a world map
Economy

The Oil Crisis Is an Opportunity to Develop a Different Kind of Politics

Illustration of Statue of Liberty holding torch with text bubbles
News

What Language Does a Ballot Speak?

Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building
Governance & Legislation

The Good Reasons and Bad Politics Surrounding a Third Trump Impeachment

Man writing next to a box labeled "Vote."
Community

Latino Political Support Alone Doesn’t Tell Us How Strong Latino Identity Is

Read More

Be a voter stickers

Be a voter stickers

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Blue Wave, Red Undertow, Independent Surge

The midterms seem to be adhering to a familiar script: the sitting president will be rebuked and the party in power will lose seats in Congress. There’s a blue wave coming. Or there’s a red undertow that will sink the GOP.

But look closer. Not everything is red and blue. Independent voters, independent candidates, and independent reform is surging. Even independent celebrities like Matthew McConaughey are stirring the pot!

Keep ReadingShow less
gavel on top of a US flag
a judge's gavel on top of a flag
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

60 Former DOJ Attorneys Oppose California Election Lawsuit

Sixty former Department of Justice attorneys from both Democratic and Republican administrations are urging a federal appeals court to reject the Justice Department's last-minute intervention in California's election. They argue that the intervention violates longstanding department policies designed to prevent election interference. The former officials cite guidelines such as Justice Manual Section 9-85.500, which advises against overt investigative or prosecutorial steps near an election, and the department's non-interference policy, which seeks to avoid actions that could affect election outcomes or integrity.

In an amicus brief filed by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law and Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP, the former officials argue that DOJ is taking the unusual step of seeking election-related relief just days before the midterm election, contrary to department policies that discourage such actions near Election Day. They say these policies aim to prevent election interference, discourage voter participation, or disrupt election administration. The brief cites United States v. Cohen, 152 F.3d 321 (4th Cir. 1998), where courts recognized the importance of avoiding last-minute changes to election procedures. The amici also cite Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U.S. 1 (2006), in which the Supreme Court cautioned against altering election rules close to an election, as such changes can cause confusion and undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

Keep ReadingShow less
US Capitol building
The United States Capitol building with its white dome against a blue sky
Photo by Louis Velazquez on Unsplash

Would Congressional Term Limits Make Congress Better—or Worse?

Starting in the 1990’s, the idea of putting term limits on members of Congress became a recurring idea to reform the institution and improve democracy. The idea was born out of the theory that replacing the current crop of legislators with a new batch would produce a better Congress. More than 30 years later we now have quantitative and qualitative data showing the impact of term limits.

Twenty-one state legislatures have enacted some kind of term limit on legislators since 1990. Since then, dozens of academic studies have examined the impact on such factors as: complexity of legislation, influence of lobbyists and staff on legislative outcomes, and interactions with constituent. Here are some key findings.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand points to the word tax on a screen

Data calculations

Getty Images

Inconvenient Numbers Are a Sign the System Works

Earlier in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose 3.7 percent over the past year, a little higher than the month before, with gasoline accounting for more than half of September's increase. Rising prices are the kind of news no incumbent politician wants weeks before an election. The report was published anyway, on schedule. That is the quiet discipline of a trustworthy statistical system. It tells us what is true even when the number is unwelcome to whoever holds power.

So, do Americans trust government data? We do. But that trust is incomplete, and it has room to grow.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026