In Pennsylvania school districts, most 18-year-olds are not registered to vote ahead of 2022 midterm elections

Background

With the midterm elections 10 months away, Pennsylvania will hold important statewide races for US Senate, Governor, and the state Supreme Court, as well as races for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state legislature. Pennsylvania ranked 4th in CIRCLE’s Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI) for the presidential election in 2020. Per U.S. Census and AP data, 310,000 people will have turned 18 in Pennsylvania between the 2020 General Election and November 2022, nearly four times the 82,000-vote margin of victory statewide in the 2020 election. While the 2022 YESI is not yet available, we expect youth to play an enormous role in Pennsylvania in 2022.

Key findings

Despite the outsize role that youth play in this state, The Civics Center has found low voter registration rates for 18-year-olds in the most populous areas of the state, suggesting that our newest voters may not be adequately prepared to participate in this upcoming pivotal election.

• In the school districts with the largest student bodies, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the rates were 15.2% and 14.5%, respectively.

• Most school districts in Allegheny County (which contains Pittsburgh) and in the greater Philadelphia region have registration rates below 20% for 18-year-olds.

• None of the 43 school districts in Allegheny County reached a registration rate for 18-year-olds of 30% or higher.

• In Philadelphia and the suburban Pennsylvania counties that surround it (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery), only 7 of the 65 school districts reached registration rates of 30% or higher for 18-year-olds.

• Enormous disparities exist within counties, with some districts in a given county achieving rates above 35%, with others achieving below 10%.

• We estimate the following county-wide registration rates for 18-year-olds in the Pennsylvania suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia: Bucks, 18%; Chester, 17%; Delaware, 17%; Montgomery, 19%. We estimate the overall registration rate for 18-year-olds in the the region including these four counties and Philadelphia to be 17%.

2021 Future Voter Scorecard Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (as of November 2021)

2021 Future Voter Scorecard Bucks County, Pennsylvania (as of November 2021)

2021 Future Voter Scorecard Chester County, Pennsylvania (as of November 2021)

2021 Future Voter Scorecard Delaware County, Pennsylvania (as of November 2021)

2021 Future Voter Scorecard Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (as of November 2021)

Methodology

We arrived at these findings by calculating the number of 18-year-old registered voters present in recent voter files in each of the counties and school districts studied and comparing those numbers to the estimated 18-year-old population based on current U.S. Census data. We ranked districts based on the ratio of registered 18-year-old voters to the overall estimated number of 18-year-olds in a given district. We used voter files provided by the state dated November 2021, providing over one year from the 2020 Election for voter registration.

Solutions

The most important course of action to prepare Pennsylvania for strong youth representation is to register age-eligible youth voters. If you are a student, educator, or parent of a current high school student, The Civics Center can provide you with resources, training, and support to help you hold a voter registration drive in your high school. 

The Civics Center will be holding workshops throughout January, the first being on January 6. You can also schedule your own workshop at thecivicscenter.org.

Under the state’s elections code, young people are age-eligible to register if they will turn 18 by the next election. State election officials have informed us that students who will turn 18 by the state’s primary (set for May 17, 2022) are age-eligible to register now, while those who will turn 18 between the date of the primary and November 8, 2022 must wait until the primary has passed before they can register. The state offers online voter registration, including the option to upload a signature as part of the process, which makes registration easy for those who are old enough.

Political campaigns often struggle to encourage youth voter turnout, largely because young people who are not registered are, by definition, not in the voter file. Community involvement matters. Young people, parents, schools, and public officials can all play a role in helping young people understand the importance of voter registration and helping them take the first step to political participation.

To learn more about how you can help improve youth voter registration, visit https://thecivicscenter.org/volunteer.

Previous Publications from The Civics Center

The following publications provide additional information and data regarding registration and pre-18 registration across the country: 

Low Voter Registration Rates Among Teens Threaten To Depress Youth Voter Turnout in 2022 Midterm Elections (Dec. 16, 2021)

Research Report: In Arizona’s two largest counties, fewer than 15% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote(Dec. 1, 2021)

The CA Gubernatorial Runoff’s Low Impact on Youth Preregistration Rates (Oct. 26, 2021)

Stop Being Invisible (Sept. 27, 2021)

Introducing Future Voter Scorecards: OC Edition(Sept. 8, 2021)

Future Voters and Gaps in Our Democracy: A Report and Call to Action on the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment(Mar. 23, 2021)

Laura W. Brill is the founder and Executive Director of The Civics Center. James F. Wenz, Associate Director of The Civics Center, and Asteris Dougalis, a student at Northwestern University, provided significant research assistance for this effort. This post was updated on March 21, 2022.