Impact of Election Day Registration on Voter Turnout: A Quasi‐experimental Analysis

Abstract

Election day registration is among the solutions suggested for remedying low voter turnout in the United States. This analysis uses a quasi‐experimental time‐series design to test the hypothesis that states adopting election day registration increase voter turnout in comparison to states that do not reform their election procedures. The similarities in the time series of voter turnout in the experimental and control states suggest that observed changes in states adopting election day registration resulted from extraneous factors.