Opting In? The Spread of Automatic Voter Registration Across U.S. States

• In Event: Policy Diffusion in the United States

Abstract

How has the policy of Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) spread and been adopted across the U.S. states? AVR policies seek to expand participation in elections by automatically registering a citizen to vote when they renew a driver’s license or motor vehicle registration unless they opt out, or say they would not like to be registered. These policies have been adopted in fifteen and the District of Columbia states since 2015 by state legislatures, administrative agencies, and citizens themselves.

This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, most diffusion research has studied state health and welfare policies that have been adopted by state legislatures. AVR is different from these types of policies both in terms of aim and adoption method. AVR deals directly with democratic participation and it has been in adopted in some states by citizens themselves. Different institutional and state characteristics, such as term limits, demographic characteristics, and turnout rates may be instrumental in the spread of AVR than more traditional diffusion policies. Second, we also examine when states begin implementing AVR. The diffusion literature focuses primarily on explaining patterns of adoption without considering whether and how the state implements the policy. This paper examines both the factors that contribute to AVR’s adoption as well as whether and when AVR is implemented within a state. Indeed, we may observe slower time to implementation when governors are up for re-election or when governors are a different party than the legislature. Third, because the introduction of AVR in the United States is a new and ongoing process, our knowledge of AVR in the United States itself is very limited. This paper seeks to address one important question related to the introduction of AVR in the United States: why have some states have chosen this policy in the first place?

Using an original fifty state, four-year dataset, we employ a Cox Proportional Hazards model to examine the institutional and demographic factors that contribute to the spread and implementation of AVR. The diffusion and implementation of AVR provides a window into how policies that directly impact participation and elections diffuse across the states. This has important implications for understanding differences in electoral access across states.

Authors

• David Hill, Stetson University

• Kelly B Smith, Stetson University