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Voter registration has surged across the nation since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, including in key swing states such as Georgia.
While other states have seen significant increases in voter registration following Harris’s entry into the race, Alabama’s rate of new voter registration remains comparatively low.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia has seen a surge in new voter registration since the announcement of Harris’s campaign. This surge has been particularly strong among demographic groups that typically lean Democrat, indicating an outpouring of enthusiasm for Harris.
Black women voters saw a 75 percent growth in registrations in Georgia from July 21 to Aug. 13 when compared to the same period in 2020.
Sign-ups among Hispanic voters in the state grew by 114 percent compared to 2020. New voters under 30 years old also spiked by 76 percent.
Overall, a 50 percent surge in voter registration was seen in Georgia compared to the same period four years ago.
While the Alabama Secretary of State does not report voter registration numbers by gender or age, the rate of new voter registration amongst of Black and Hispanic Alabamians for August 2024 is down compared to voter registration numbers from August 2020.
In their August voter registration statistics, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division reported that Alabama saw only 93 more active Black voters than in July. Compared to the same period in 2020, the state saw an increase of 3,472 new active Black voters.
The state’s overall rate of voter registration from July to August 2024 is down compared to prior months as well. An increase of 1,531 new Black voters was seen from June to July and 1,361 from May to June.
From July to August however, the total increase in eligible voters of all demographics was only 1,158.
While the number of Black voters in the state grew by 0.36% from July to August 2020, it grew by less than 0.01% during the same period this year.
Alabama’s active Hispanic voters similarly saw less growth in 2024 than in 2020.
While Alabama gained 396 new active Hispanic voters in from July to August, they saw a growth of 581 active voters four years before. When looking at total registered voters amongst the group, a growth rate of 0.72% can be seen from July to August this year compared to 1.4% during the same period in 2020.
Overall, the state’s total electorate grew less from July to August this year than in the same period in 2020, increasing by only 0.03% as compared to 0.43% four years prior.
This lull in electorate growth came as Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced in August, the selection of 3,251 registered Alabama voters who have been issued non-citizen identification numbers by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
While Allen said it is possible some of those selected have now become naturalized citizens, he ordered the 67 counties in which these voters were registered to take immediate steps to remove the individuals from their voting rolls.
This decision has faced criticism from voting rights advocacy groups, such as the Brennan Center, which writes non-citizens voting in the U.S. is “vanishingly rare.” NPR has reported incidents, including in Alabama, of naturalized citizens or citizens born in the U.S. having their voting rights revoked in the name of removing noncitizen voters.
It is illegal for people who are not citizens to register to vote in Alabama. Alabama’s voter registration form also requires applicants sign a statement declaring they are a U.S. citizen, which can result in a prison sentence of up to five years if falsified. Allen said individuals on the list of potential non-citizen voters may apply for reinstatement by updating their State of Alabama Voter Registration Form and will be able to vote again if their citizenry is verified.
Rolland Grady is an ambassador for the University of Alabama chapter of The Andrew Goodman Foundation and works with Vote Everywhere, an initiative of AGF that works to register voters and break down barriers to voting on college campuses. AGF is a non-profit dedicated supporting leadership development and voting access amongst youth through organization chapters at universities.
Grady said that despite voter registration rates being down in August, she saw greater interest amongst young people in exercising their right to vote while registering incoming UA freshman over the summer, compared to her time as an ambassador for Vote Everywhere during the previous academic year.
Grady said major news events of the summer, such as Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket and the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, sparked greater interest in politics and voting amongst young people across the political spectrum.
“We saw that from both sides, big events happened in the political world, and that got people talking about what that means and what that means to be a young person involved in politics,” Grady said.
Despite this increased interest from young people, Grady said some students remain uncertain about the value of their vote.
“One thing that I’ve seen this year is there’s lot of people that care really deeply about specific issues, but they still feel unsure about whether or not to vote,” Grady said.
Grady said educating potential Alabama voters about historic fights for voting rights in the state is one way she and Vote Everywhere have worked to make young people care about registering to vote.
“Especially being in the South, I think we have a responsibility to talk about and acknowledge that cruel history we have but also how precious the right to vote is because so many people lost their lives for it, so we have to continue to honor them by continuing to vote,” Grady said.
Grady attributed the surge in voter registration in Georgia to the priority national organizations places on voter registration in swing states.
“I think a lot of states—Southern states that aren’t really seen as swing states don’t get the same national attention as others,” Grady said. “For Georgia, for example, we do see tons of national organizations, tons of political groups and PACs pulling in their money and focusing a lot of their efforts in that state whereas in Alabama I think we have a lot more grassroots organizations kind of doing this work.”
Grady emphasized the importance of work done by organizations in Alabama such as the Alabama League of Women Voters, Alabama American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center. She said that while Alabama has not been subject to the recent registration spike seen by other states, these organizations have helped keep numbers of registered voters in the state at steady increase year to year.
