LATEST DATA: Pennsylvania
Most 18-year-olds are still not registered to vote in Pennsylvania. What the heck?!?! Deadline October 21.
Today we’re sharing a data update from Pennsylvania, which we’ll be tracking weekly as we approach the state’s October 21 registration deadline.
This is the fourteenth of our 2024 Election Season series of Future Voter Scorecards.
As Election Day approaches, we’re drilling down to the local level to show where and how young people can make a difference when they register and vote. We’ll be covering the percentage of 18-year-olds who are registered and tracking changes over time.
Facts don’t fix themselves. It’s up to our readers to spread the word; make sure that all the young people you know are registered to vote, and that they help their school communities do the same. Share this post with your PA friends.
There’s still time for students and educators to attend a free workshop to learn how to run a drive. Teachers can download a free toolkit to learn how to make a difference in their school communities.
Pennsylvania
In our latest data as of September 30, the registration rate for 18-year-olds in PA is still only 48.5%. This is only a 2.6 percentage point increase since last week, which is meaningful, but also a deceleration from the 3 percentage point gain the previous week.
By way of comparison, the registration rate for Pennsylvanians ages 45 and above is 77.6%, nearly 30 percentage points higher than the rate for 18-year-olds.
Roughly 81,400 18-year-olds in the state are not yet registered. The margin of victory in PA in the 2020 presidential election was just 81,660. The deadline is October 21 – less than two weeks away.
One bright spot is the strong performance of the state’s most populous counties. In most states we track, urban areas have registration rates that lag statewide rates. But in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County and Greater Philadelphia lead the state with 54.6% and 51.5% of 18-year-olds registered, respectively.
As we discussed last week, we believe this is in part due to efforts like our county-wide “Huddle” in Allegheny on September 19, which attracted 150 high school students to learn how to run nonpartisan voter registration drives in their high schools. Those drives are ongoing.
For a detailed case study on the positive impact of high school voter registration drives, please see Brill, et al., Research Report: Increasing Voter Registration Among 18-year-olds in New Hampshire (Feb. 6, 2024).
Pennsylvania does not have same-day voter registration. Anyone not registered on October 21 will not be eligible to vote in the Nov 5th general election. There is still time for young people, as well as parents and educators to make sure all young people understand how and why to register. But time is quickly running out.
See below for detailed scorecards on 18-year-old registration rates for the most populous counties and for school districts in Allegheny county and greater Philadelphia.