State voter registration lists largely accurate and up-to-date, new research shows

The Trump administration and its right-wing, anti-voting allies regularly allege that voter fraud is  a widespread reality that enjoys overt support from Democrats. Virtually all the evidence suggests the contrary.

Now, new research indicates that state voter registration lists — a common administration target — are actually accurate and up to date. And both blue and red states are largely doing a good job maintaining their lists. 

In a new report released Thursday, the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) has calculated each state’s active registration rate for the 2024 general election, using state and U.S. Census data to estimate how many eligible voters have registration records with current information. 

Across the country, the average state active registration rate was 85% in 2024, suggesting that most states maintain accurate registration lists that reflect the normal churn of voters moving, minors turning 18, and people dying.  

“This report, to my knowledge, having worked in the space for nearly 30 years, is the first report to really create an apples-to-apples comparison of active voter registration rates across the states,” said David Becker, CEIR’s executive director.

Nonetheless, there’s some variety in how well states performed. While 39 states and Washington, D.C. landed within 10 percentage points of the average, some were outliers. 

Arkansas was the worst performer, with a 59% active registration rate. Alaska, on the other end of the spectrum, had a 112% rate, reflecting incentives Alaskans have to remain registered in Alaska even if it’s not their primary residence (the state’s Permanent Fund Dividend sends checks funded by oil and mining revenue annually to residents). 

Republican-led states tended to perform below the average, but some Democratic-dominated states did as well. Besides Arkansas, the below average states were: Wyoming (66%), Oklahoma (70%), Idaho (73%), Ohio (73%), Hawaii (74%), Iowa (74%), Montana (77%), Utah (77%), Arizona (79%), Louisiana (80%), Texas (80%), New Mexico (80%), West Virginia (80%), South Carolina (83%), Tennessee (83%), Nebraska (83%), Missouri (84%), Indiana (84%), Massachusetts (84%) and Pennsylvania (84%).  

Becker cautioned against attributing states’ performances to their partisan leanings. “If you look at the 14 states and D.C. that have an active registration rate of 90% or higher, Donald Trump won seven of those states in 2024,” Becker said. “You see [Republican] states down at the bottom like Arkansas and Oklahoma, but also [Democratic] states like Hawaii have lower registration rates than the average.”

Most of the states with higher active registration rates utilized cutting-edge methods to get voters to register, like automatic voter registration, same day registration and online voter registration. 

These “innovative” registration procedures “help them keep their voter list up to date and accurate, make it easy to register to vote, and make it easy for voters to interact with the voter registration list when they have a life event,” Becker said. 

Election officials consider a registration record “active” after processing an application. It remains active for as long as the information appears to be accurate. A record is “inactive” if officials think it might be out of date — usually when a voter moves without updating their registration with their new address.