Voter registrations in Maine spiked after Harris announced candidacy

Maine has seen a marked increase in new voter registrations since President Joe Biden dropped out of the upcoming presidential race on July 21 and subsequently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, with particular spikes in the two weeks immediately following. 

According to statewide voter registration numbers provided by the Maine Secretary of State’s Office, 3,793 Mainers registered to vote in July — higher than every month since the 2023 November election. 

The majority of those new voters registered after Biden dropped out. 

The week after his announcement, 1,235 Mainers registered to vote. The following week saw an additional 1,114 new registrations.

These weekly totals are just shy of double what had been seen in the weeks before Harris announced her candidacy. The week before, 757 Mainers had registered to vote, 701 had two weeks before and 426 three weeks before.  

The surge in voter registration in Maine is part of skyrocketing registrations seen nationwide since Harris entered the presidential race. 

According to the nonpartisan voter registration website Vote.org, 38,500 new voters registered in the 48 hours after Biden’s announcement, which CEO Andrea Hailey said is the largest number of registrations in a 48-hour period this election cycle. 

In Maine, the new voter registrations in July were only surpassed in the past year in November 2023, when the state had a referendum election. That month, 5,168 Mainers registered to vote. 

While data is only yet available for the first half of August, it shows weekly totals are still surpassing those prior to Biden dropping out, though it has slowed since the marked increase in the two weeks immediately after. 

In the three weeks after Biden ended his candidacy, 3,221 Mainers registered to vote — more than the individual monthly totals seen for June, May and April.

Emily Cook, director of communications for the secretary of state, said new voter registration numbers cannot be broken down geographically or demographically using the current Central Voter Registration system. 

Nationwide, Vote.org found that more than eight in 10 new voter registrations immediately after Biden dropped out were people aged 18-34.

Some young Maine voters told Maine Morning Star that they felt reinvigorated by Harris’ candidacy after Biden dropped out. Many of them had resigned themselves to voting for Biden, but said they find Harris more relatable because she’s younger and a woman of color who understands and sympathizes with the issues they care about, such as climate change and reproductive rights.

Several Mainers from diverse communities, many of whom broke barriers by serving in public office like Harris, have detailed concerted efforts to mobilize young voters, and more people in general, since Harris entered the race.   

During his latest visit to Maine, Harris’ husband, the second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, urged attendees of a private Democratic Party fundraiser to help register new voters, particularly focusing on youth, as he described not voting as a vote for the Republican nominee former President Donald Trump. 

This story was originally published by the Maine Morning Star