Ohio Alert: Youth Voter Registration Is Down to the Wire
Too many first-timer voters (aka 18-year-olds) won’t be able to use their voices November 3, unless they register today.
*This post has been updated to add details about Ohio school districts in Cuyahoga and Hamilton Counties.
Today is the last day to register to vote in Ohio. It’s a state with closely watched elections for Senate, the US House, Governor, and other contests for statewide and local office.
Our most recent Ohio data – from October 3 – show that only 35% of the 18-year-olds in the Buckeye state are registered to vote. That’s a full 10 percentage points below the 45% registration rate for 18-year-olds we see nationally.
Although 150,000 people turn 18 in the state every year, at 35% registration, only 56,000 18-year-olds are registered, meaning that nearly 100,000 are not. Meanwhile, nearly 80% of older voters ages 45-79 are registered.
On the bright side, the rate now is 3.2 percentage points above the rate at this time in 2022 (34.9% vs 31.7%). That means about 5,000 additional Ohio 18-year-olds with the ability to cast a ballot compared to 2022. And that number could go up further if more people register today.
This chart shows the trends since 2022:
This chart shows the rates in Ohio’s 20 most populous counties:
As of this summer, Ohio was close to the very bottom when it comes to registering the state’s youngest eligible voters, ranking 34th out of the 39 states for which we have been tracking data.
Almost all of Ohio’s neighbors have been doing better. This summer, while Ohio clocked in at just 27% of 18-year-olds registered, Michigan led the way with 83% of 18-year-olds registered, followed by West Virginia (57%), Kentucky (39%) and Indiana (34%). Only Pennsylvania, another populous state with outsize electoral impact, was below Ohio, with a paltry 22% of 18-year-olds registered as of mid-July.
While we do not have current data for all states nationally, based on Ohio’s move from 27% this summer to 35% today, which likely tracks similar upticks in other states as the midterms are approaching, we doubt Ohio’s ranking has moved much.
Joining Michigan at the top this summer were Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado, all with rates above 70%, showing that low youth registration is not inevitable. Fixing it – or not – is a matter of choice. We can do better if we choose to do so.
As the county data above reflects, all three of Ohio’s three most populous counties, Franklin, Cuyahoga, and Hamilton have voter registration rates for 18-year-olds that are above the statewide average, 41.8%, 39.2%, and 45.2% respectively.
We have school district level data for Cuyahoga and Hamilton Counties, and in both, several school districts saw dramatic changes compared to the last midterm election in 2022.
At the top of the list in Hamilton County is Cincinnati, with nearly a 30 percentage point increase from 16.4% in 2022 to 46.2% today. Congratulations to Cincinnati. I’m especially proud of this result because The Civics Center is part of the Greater Cincinnati Voter Collaborative, which helped to make it happen. The key has been bringing a wide range of high school learning experiences and civic engagement opportunities to Cincinnati Public Schools.
Cuyahoga County is also seeing improvements over 2022, with South Euclid-Lyndhurst City improving an impressive 30.8 percentage points above 2022. Cleveland Municipal School District also improved in the same period by nearly 11 percentage points. You can see the details for these and other districts below.
Meanwhile, time is running out in Ohio, at least for the midterms, as it is in other states. In addition to Ohio, the following states all have registration deadlines today: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee. You can check out our most recent data for their registration rates here.
If you do just one thing today to promote full participation in democracy, tell your friends, family and colleagues in Ohio – and across the country – to encourage everyone in their community – and