Online Voter Registration Spikes in Indiana

Indiana election officials reported a steep increase in online voter registration activity ahead of the state’s April 4 registration deadline for the May primary. During the final week, more than 90,000 Hoosiers logged on to Indiana’s online voter registration site, with a one-day peak on March 28 of just over 33,500 registration transactions. These figures indicate significant growth compared with 2012, when slightly more than 6,500 voters registered online during the final week.

State officials believe the increase is the result of a social media effort to encourage eligible citizens to register.

Registration for the primary began Dec. 1, 2015, and 147,260 voters registered or updated their registration online in Indiana, with more than 60 percent of that activity occurring in the final week. In total, state election officials estimate that slightly less than 40 percent of this cycle’s registration activity occurred online.

Samuel Derheimer manages election initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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