Idaho attracts new voters ahead of November election. Who’s registering the most?
As thousands of Boise State University students strolled through campus Tuesday and music blared from a sorority event on The Quad, young people with clipboards asked passersby whether they’re registered to vote.
Those who stopped at the booths managed by Boise State’s student government and the Ada County elections office told the Idaho Statesman they’re planning to vote in this year’s midterm election because they’re concerned about women’s rights, partisanship and the increasing cost of living; and they want a say in who their political leaders are.
And they’re registering to vote in high numbers.
At least nine states, including Idaho, have a higher number of 18-to 24-year-olds on voter rolls this month than during the last midterm election in 2018, according to an analysis by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
“For young people, it’s important to get a new perspective of new generations to be able to have a say in governmental issues,” said Thang Pham, 19, a Boise State marketing student.
Many women among share of new voters
The Associated Students of Boise State University, a student government group, and the Ada County elections office were helping students register Tuesday as party of National Voter Registration Day.
Jackson Berg, government relations officer for the Associated Students of Boise State University, said registering just one person to vote would be a success, but the group helped “a lot more than that” Tuesday.
“It’s been a wild political time recently,” Berg said. “As much as you can debate about it, your voice is really heard when you vote. I would argue that getting out to vote is the best thing you could do to participate within our country.”
Experts point to significant political decisions this summer that may be motivating young voters. In June, some states were outpacing young voter registrations from the last midterm elections, but other states “still had significant work to do,” the Tufts researchers wrote.
“Since then, more states held their 2022 primaries, and national events like the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, continued hearings by the January 6th Committee, and legislative action in Congress may have spurred young people’s electoral attention and action,” they wrote.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed longstanding federal protections for abortion, triggering an Idaho law that banned the procedure in most circumstances.
Emma Fenderson, 21, a Boise State psychology student, on Tuesday signed up to receive an absentee ballot so she can vote at home, in Twin Falls. Fenderson said she’s a libertarian who believes in conservative policies “as long as the government is staying out of my life.” Fenderson said she’s worried about women’s rights due to Idaho’s abortion ban.
“I would never personally have an abortion,” Fenderson said, but that doesn’t mean the Idaho Legislature has the right “to tell me not to.”
The Tufts analysis also found a gender gap among new registrants under 30 in recent months. Young women account for 54% of new young voters nationwide who registered in August and September.
“That’s a shift from previous election cycles, in which voter registrations have been fairly evenly split by gender,” the analysis said.
The slant toward new female registrants is more pronounced in states, like Idaho, where abortion rights were eliminated or are at risk as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision, according to Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a political data and polling firm.
In Idaho, since June 24, the share of new female voters is 18% higher than males, Bonier found. That discrepancy is second only to Kansas, where voters last month struck down a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have stripped abortion rights.
“In my 28 years of analyzing elections, I had never seen anything like what’s happened in the past two months in American politics: Women are registering to vote in numbers I never witnessed before,” Bonier, who is also a Democratic strategist, wrote this month in a column for the New York Times.
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 4:00 PM.
