Year of Publication
2021
College
Martin School of Public Policy and Administration
Date Available
7-1-2022
Degree Name
Master of Public Administration
Committee Chair
Dr. Iuliia Shybalkina
Executive Summary
Automatic Voter Registration is a recently introduced policy that simplifies the process of registering to vote in order to increase voter turnout rates. This capstone estimates how successful this policy has been. To that end, I used a difference-in-differences research design to consider voter registration and turnout rates seen in the Congressional general elections over the period from 2010 to 2018 in Oregon and Washington. I found that the implementation of Automatic Voter Registration led to a small but statistically significant increase in voter registration and voter turnout rates in Oregon relative to both the prior trend seen in that state and to Washington, a counterfactual state without Automatic Voter Registration during these elections. However, due to the limited nature of this study focused on five elections in one corner of the United States, a more comprehensive study is needed to confirm that this increase is replicable in other areas.
Recommended Citation
Toney, Jacob, "The Impact of Automatic Voter Registration on Voter Registration and Voter Turnout Rates: Comparing Oregon and Washington Congressional Elections, 2010-2018" (2021). MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects. 378.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/mpampp_etds/378
