Michigan Miracle
Michigan blew us away: 62.9% of the state’s 18-year-olds are registered to vote as of May 1
It’s not every day we get to report on something going great when it comes to states helping the youngest voters register.
When we pulled the state voter file, we were expecting the voter registration rate for 18-year-olds in Michigan to be more or less in line with the rates in nearby Pennsylvania (24%, as of April 2024) and Ohio (32%, as of May 2024) or the national rate (30%, as of Nov. 2022).
But Michigan blew us away: 62.9% of the state’s 18-year-olds are registered to vote as of May 1, 2024. The rate is up by 4.4 percentage points just since March 2024. The state enacted automatic voter registration (AVR) in 2018, as part of a voter-approved constitutional amendment to protect and expand voting rights in the state. In November 2023, the Governor signed a package of bills to broaden AVR and, for the first time, to allow young people to preregister to vote, beginning at age 16.
It’s not just rates for 18-year-olds that are on the rise. Between 2014 and 2022, the registration rates for youth 18-24 in the state increased by more than 15 percentage points (roughly 120,000 new Michigan voters).
Compared to older Michigan voters, however, Michigan’s youngest voters still have a long way to go to achieve parity. 93.5% of Michigan voters age 45 and above are currently registered to vote. That’s more than 30 percentage points higher than the rate for 18-year-olds.
Young people in Michigan have an opportunity to approach that rate between now and the state’s primary election on August 6 and the general election on November 5.
Roughly 130,000 young people turn 18 every year in the state, and 48,000 of them remain unregistered. In the state’s most populous counties, Wayne and Oakland, more than 15,000 18-year-olds have not yet registered (Wayne, 9,237; Oakland, 6,212). Our Scorecards below provide a school-district-by-school-district breakdown to help identify the areas with the greatest gaps.
Michigan routinely has close elections in which youth registration and turnout can play a decisive role.
This is the first time The Civics Center has published data for Michigan.
Promote the Vote, a coalition that has been working hard on legislative reforms to ensure that Michigan’s voting system works for all, shared this note from Executive Director, Micheal Davis Jr.:
Promote the Vote is proud to celebrate young people across the state, who are stepping up in record numbers, joining others to perform their civic duty. Michigan has taken important steps in recent years to remove barriers to voter registration and the scorecards published today by The Civics Center document the tangible impact of doing so. Michigan saw the highest youth turnout in the country in 2022. From the looks of it, young voters across Michigan are preparing for a repeat in 2024.
If I’m reading that right, it sounds almost like a challenge. It’s a challenge to everyone in Michigan, to keep their top rank in 2024. It’s a challenge to the rest of us, too. Only one state will have the highest youth turnout in 2024, and the honor, no doubt, will go to the state where young people know they matter and get engaged.
That's incredible news!
One word of caution, though, with early registration and managing expectations. I worked the polls in NJ's primary yesterday, and a 17 year old who registered in April at age 16 showed up thinking he could vote. I thought that NJ might allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries if they were going to be 18 for the general, but that doesn't kick in until 2026 (I looked it up after he left). So this kid won't be able to vote until 2026, and he may lose interest in the meantime. I think it's important to be very clear when 16 year olds register that they can't vote until they're 18 except in primaries, but only in states that allow 17 year olds to vote if they'll be 18 on election day. Beware of unintended consequences.
Go Michigan!