The website allows people from around the country to register to vote online, explains state and local election rules, provides key voting deadlines and more. The organization describes itself as “the largest nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote technology platform in America.”
According to Vote.org senior communications director LToya Knighten, Missouri saw a 627 percent increase in registrations between that day and June 17, one week before the ruling was released.
Kansas saw an even bigger jump: The site recorded a 1,038 percent increase in voter registrations on the 24. That means more than 10 times the number of people in Kansas registered to vote through the site than did a week earlier.
Kansans will be the first in the country to vote on abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s decision when they vote on a state constitutional amendment that would remove statewide protection of the right to abortion on Aug. 2.
“The spike of 6/24 has been followed by 320 percent more registrations across the country on the Vote.org tool, and this pattern is mirrored in Kansas and Missouri,” Knighten told The Star via email.
The average number of voter registrations Vote.org records per week is around 23 in Kansas and 12 in Missouri. In the week following the Roe decision, those numbers jumped to 257 in Kansas and 165 in Missouri.
The Kansas City Election Board, which serves Kansas City voters within Jackson County, told The Star that it has seen 5,231 new voter registrations since the Supreme Court decision was handed down. But director Lauri Ealom said that it’s hard to tell whether these registrations were inspired by the abortion rights decision, since her office sees an increase in the final few weeks before every election.
July 6 was the last day to register in Missouri before the Aug. 2 primary, and the last day to register in Kansas is July 12.
“Typically in a primary election, there is an increase in registrations anyway… there’s always a big push in the last three weeks before they can’t register anymore,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s Roe vs. Wade, or is it the primary election?”
If you want more information about how to register to vote, check out this guide.
©2022 The Kansas City Star. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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