The Introduction of Voter Registration and Its Effect on Turnout
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vtp_wp14.pdf
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242.25 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0235d7f98f822a9c5bdd38f0540b4508
Author(s)
Ansolabehere, Stephen
Konisky, David M.
Date Issued
February 2004
Publisher
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
Series/Report no.
VTP Working Paper Series;14
Abstract
Voter registration, it is widely argued, raises the costs of voting, thereby decreasing turnout. Studies of turnout across states find that states with later registration dates or election day registration have much higher turnout rates. Eliminating registration barriers altogether is estimated to raise voter participation rates by 5 to 10 percentage points. This paper presents panel estimates of the effects of the introduction of registration that exploit changes in registration law and turnout within counties. New York imposed registration on all of its counties in 1965; Ohio imposed registration in all of its counties in 1977. We estimate that the imposition of registration on counties that did not have registration in these states decreased participation over the long-term by 3 to 4 percentage points. Though significant, this is lower than estimates of the effects of registration from cross-sectional studies.
Subjects
Voter registration
Voter turnout
Introduction of registration
Imposition of registration
Barriers to voting
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