Widening partisan divides over vote-by-mail and registration policies

Voters take part in the Democratic primary at the Cordesville, South Carolina, fire department on Feb. 3. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ views of voting policies and procedures in the United States. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,140 adults from Jan. 16-21, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology.

Americans generally believe that voting is an effective way to bring about positive change in the country. But in recent years, there have been contentious debates in a number of states over the rules around voting and elections.

A new national survey finds deep partisan divisions over some voting policies, especially voting by mail.

Chart shows Most Americans favor paper ballot backups, voter ID, weeks of early voting, making Election Day a holiday

Yet other proposals draw widespread public support, including from majorities in both partisan coalitions:

  • Requiring paper ballot backups for electronic voting machines (82% favor this),
  • Requiring people to show government-issued photo identification to vote (81%),
  • Making early voting available for two weeks prior to Election Day (76%),
  • Making Election Day a national holiday (72%) and
  • Allowing convicted felons to vote after serving their sentences (69%).

The Pew Research Center survey, conducted Jan. 16-21 among 5,140 adults, also finds smaller majorities supporting allowing anyone to vote by mail if they want to (57%), as well as automatic and Election Day voter registration (57% each).

Americans are more divided on whether groups should be banned from collecting completed ballots to return to official voting centers (47% favor, 50% oppose) and whether people should be removed from registration lists if they have not voted recently or confirmed their registration (44% favor, 55% oppose).

Proposals with broad bipartisan support

More than eight-in-ten Republicans and those who lean to the Republican Party (85%), and a similar share of Democrats and Democratic leaners (82%), favor paper ballot backups for electronic voting machines.

Dot plot by party showing there is bipartisan support for some voting policy proposals, including paper backups of electronic votes, allowing two weeks of early in-person voting and making Election Day a national holiday; but wide partisan gaps on other proposals, including voting by mail and automatic registration.

While there is substantial support in both parties for requiring a photo ID to vote, there is a sizable partisan divide in these views: Nearly all Republicans (95%), compared with 69% of Democrats, favor this requirement.

At least six-in-ten among both parties also favor allowing two weeks of early in-person voting, making Election Day a national holiday and allowing convicted felons to vote after serving their sentences. Yet support for each of these policies is higher among Democrats than Republicans.

Proposals with narrow majority public support, and wide partisan differences

About six-in-ten adults (57% each) support allowing anyone to vote by mail if they want, automatically registering eligible citizens to vote and allowing registration on Election Day.

However, Democrats are far more supportive of these proposals than Republicans. At least three-quarters of Democrats support each of them, while there is more opposition than support for them among Republicans.

Proposals that divide the public

Nearly half of Americans (47%) favor banning groups from collecting completed ballots to return to official voting centers, while roughly the same share (50%) oppose this. The public is also relatively divided over removing people from voter registration lists if they have not voted recently or confirmed their registration, with slightly more opposing this (55%) than supporting it (44%).

Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats (60% vs. 27%) to support the removal of inactive records from registration lists. Republicans are also more likely than Democrats (56% vs. 41%) to favor banning groups from collecting and returning ballots.

Shifts in support for some election policy proposals

Support for – and opposition to – many election policy proposals is similar to views in recent years, though there have been some notable shifts.

Election Day policies

Americans have long supported making Election Day a national holiday. But support for this has risen in recent years, from 65% in 2018 to 72% today. Currently, 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans favor this.

By contrast, support for allowing Election Day voter registration has dropped over the last several years –from 64% in 2018 to 57% now.

  • This decrease is largely driven by declining support among Republicans: 39% currently favor Election Day voter registration, down from 49% four years ago.
  • 76% of Democrats favor allowing Election Day registration, little different from the 78% who said this in 2018.

Voting by mail

Multiple line charts over time showing that since 2018, Republicans and Democrats have grown further apart on whether to allow automatic and Election Day voter registration and voting by mail

The single widest partisan gap on the voting policies asked about in this survey is over “allowing any voter to vote by mail if they want to.” And that gap is now substantially wider than it was in April 2020, the result of a sharp decline in support among Republicans:

  • Today, just 28% of Republicans say any voter should be allowed to vote by mail if they want to. Four years ago, 49% of Republicans said this.
  • An overwhelming share of Democrats (84%) continue to say voting by mail should be available to all voters. Democratic support is essentially unchanged over this period.

Voter ID

Majorities in both parties continue to back requiring all voters to show government-issued photo ID to vote.

  • The share of Democrats supporting this has risen from 61% to 69% since last year.
  • Support for voter ID remains nearly universal among Republicans (95% favor).

Age differences on voter registration policies

While there are only modest age differences on many of the voting policies asked about in the survey, there are wider gaps on two policies related to voter registration.

Chart shows Wide age gaps, especially within GOP, on same-day registration and removal of inactive voter records

Older adults are far less supportive than younger adults of same-day voter registration. They are also more supportive of removing people from registration lists if they have not voted recently.

These differences are particularly pronounced among Republicans.

Election Day registration

  • About six-in-ten Republicans ages 18 to 34 (57%) favor same-day voter registration. The share backing this drops among older age groups. Just 24% of Republicans ages 65 and older support allowing Election Day registration.
  • There are only modest age differences on this question among Democrats, with about seven-in-ten of those 50 and older supporting same-day voter registration, along with about eight-in-ten of those under 50.

Removing inactive registration records

  • Nearly three-quarters of Republicans ages 65 and older (73%) support removing people from registration lists if they have not recently voted or confirmed their registration, as do 61% of Republicans 50 to 64 and 58% of Republicans 35 to 49. Republicans ages 18 to 34 are less likely (44%) to say this.
  • Among Democrats, age differences are far more modest: 24% of those under 50 and 31% of those 50 and older favor the removal of registration records for inactivity.

Views of voting proposals among racial and ethnic groups

Across racial and ethnic groups, large majorities favor requiring paper ballot backups for electronic voting machines, photo ID requirements for voting and making Election Day a national holiday.

Dot plot showing that White Americans are less supportive than Black or Asian Americans of allowing anyone to vote by mail if they want to, automatic voter registration and same-day registration
  • Majorities also favor allowing two weeks of early in-person voting and allowing convicted felons to vote after serving their sentences, with Black adults more likely than any other group to strongly favor these policies.
  • While about half of White adults (52%) favor policy proposals that would allow anyone to vote by mail if they want, automatically register all citizens to vote, or allow people to register on Election Day, they are far less supportive of these policies than other racial and ethnic groups. About three-quarters of Asian adults favor these policies, as do similar shares of Black adults and about six-in-ten Hispanic adults.

Views of election policies across ideological groups

For the most part, partisan and ideological differences in support or opposition to voting policies find wide gaps between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, with moderates in both parties falling somewhere in between. But there are a few exceptions:

  • Liberal Democrats are particularly likely to support making Election Day a national holiday. But there is no gap in opinion between other groups: 88% of liberals favor this, compared with about seven-in-ten of those in other ideological groups.
  • Wide majorities across all groups favor requiring paper backup ballots – with nearly identical shares of conservative Republicans (88%) and liberal Democrats (86%) saying this.
Dot plot showing substantial ideological differences within both parties on some election policies, including voting by mail and same-day registration