Registering 1.5 Million Voters as Part of the Civic Holiday
Contact: Eliza Liebler, Elle Communications
Phone: 855-438-3553
Email: press@nationalvoterregistrationday.org
With Online Activations and Safe, In-Person Events Nationwide Amid COVID, National Voter Registration Day Breaks All-Time Registration Record
Washington D.C. (September 29, 2020) — Last Tuesday, September 22, was the ninth annual National Voter Registration Day – a nonpartisan and collaborative effort that annually registers hundreds of thousands of new voters. This year, over 100 Premier Partners and 4,500 community partners came together to register an estimated 1.5 million voters through virtual events and safe, in-person voter registration drives, making this the largest National Voter Registration Day in history.
#NationalVoterRegistrationDay also dominated social media, trending #1 on Twitter with support from influencers and celebrities eager to use their platforms to inspire civic engagement. Well-known individuals such as Natalie Portman, Will Smith, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, Conan O’Brien, Alyssa Milano, Katie Couric, Meghan Markle, and more celebrated the nonpartisan holiday by posting on social media, highlighting why getting registered is important and encouraging everyone to participate in the quickly-approaching elections. Political figures including President Trump, Joe Biden, and both the Republican and Democratic National Committees also used the day as a rallying point to get voters registered and share information related to the November 3 election.
“The historic levels of participation in this year’s National Voter Registration Day included Americans of all political affiliations and ideologies. The groundswell of interest in the holiday reflects a surge in public interest around civic participation, and shows that Americans agree, regardless of political beliefs, that our democracy works best when more of us participate,” said Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican from Washington who sits on the holiday’s Steering Committee.
Fellow Steering Committee member Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat from Minnesota, added that “while a record-setting number of voters registered this past week, we’re confident that voter registration levels will continue to grow ahead of the elections, as registration remains open in all 50 states and DC.” For up-to-date information on voter registration deadlines and policies, individuals can visit vote.gov, an official website of the U.S. government.
It is no secret that COVID-19 impacted voter registration in a dramatic way. With DMVs closed across the country and in-person registration efforts postponed or altered due to the pandemic, National Voter Registration Day’s work this year was more urgent than ever. However, despite the pandemic, the organization shattered its previous record of 865,000 registrations set in 2018. While numbers are still being collected from the states, the organizers of the holiday estimate that 1.5 million new or updated voter registrations took place as part of the civic holiday. Many states saw their online voter registration numbers double or triple from the same day in 2018.
National Voter Registration Day broke not only the record for most registrations, but also easily surpassed the previous record of partner organizations. About one third of the 4,500+ community groups that celebrated the holiday were getting involved in voter registration for the first time, and half of the 100+ Premier Partners were also new to National Voter Registration Day, including an even split between corporate and nonprofit partners. Nonprofit organizations and businesses like the Alliance for Youth Organizing, NALEO Educational Fund, Country Music Television, APIA Vote, Salesforce, the YMCA, Comedy Central, SiriusXM Pandora, MTV, the United States Conference of Mayors, and Blue Apron joined together to encourage citizens to register to vote and cast a ballot this fall.
About National Voter Registration Day
National Voter Registration Day is a single day of coordinated events by thousands of national and community partners across the nation to raise awareness of registration opportunities. Held on the fourth Tuesday of every September, it is endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State, National Association of State Election Directors, National Association of Election Officials, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Financial sponsors of the holiday include: Aflac, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Creative Artists Agency, Democracy Fund, Facebook, Participant Media, ViacomCBS, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
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If you’re interested in connecting with one of National Voter Registration Day’s spokespeople, including Secretaries of State, corporate partners, nonprofits, or National Voter Registration Day representatives, please contact press@nationalvoterregistrationday.org.
For further details on National Voter Registration Day, please visit nationalvoterregistrationday.org. Visitors to the site can register to vote at nationalvoterregistrationday.org/register.