Maine voter registrations spiked after Biden exited presidential race (2024)

Maine saw a spike in new voter registrations last month in a sign that enthusiasm for the presidential election could be building after President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

A total of 3,793 people registered to vote in July, with the number of registrations jumping significantly in the two weeks following Biden’s July 21 announcement he was exiting the race.

That’s more than any month in the past year with the exception of November 2023, according to data from the Maine Department of the Secretary of State.

The state doesn’t ask people why they are registering to vote, but department spokesperson Emily Cook said election officials often see surges in the lead-up to elections.

“The recent spike lines up with President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race,” Cook said.

It’s not clear how the registrations break down by party, however, because Maine doesn’t track the data according to party or demographic information, such as hometowns, gender or age.

Nationally, some voter registration data in recent weeks has pointed to signs that Democrats are energized by Harris’ candidacy and that is translating into new party registrations.

The battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw a jump in Democratic voter registrations in late July, The New York Times reported. But there was also a big spike in Republican registrations in those states during the week of July 14, when the Republican National Convention was held on the heels of an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the Times reported.

Data for Maine show a small increase in new registrations during the week of July 14 – from 701 the week before to 757 the week of the assassination attempt and convention.

Maine has about 955,285 active registered voters and has enrolled 31,328 new voters in the past year.

More than 5,000 people registered to vote last November, and the state also saw a spike in registrations in March, around the time of the presidential primary.

There were 1,884 voter registrations in the first three weeks of July, and nearly twice that many, 3,221, in the three weeks following Biden’s announcement.

Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said in an email Wednesday that he didn’t have the latest data on Republican registrations in Maine yet, but that anecdotally, the party is hearing strong enthusiasm for the Republican ticket of Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

“We are hearing from voters that they will be supporting Republicans to fight inflation, secure the border, bring energy costs down and make our streets safer,” Savage said.

Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, visited Maine in late July for a campaign stop and fundraisers, and the Harris campaign in Maine has said that it saw a spike in volunteer interest following Biden’s decision to leave the race.

Annina Breen, a spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, said Wednesday that the party doesn’t yet have a registration breakdown for the period following Biden’s exit from the race.

But she said the party has seen a “huge grassroots groundswell of support” since Harris entered the race and that thousands of Mainers have signed up to volunteer to help elect Harris and Maine Democrats up and down the ballot.

“We’re excited that so many Mainers are registering to vote and are making plans to cast their ballots on Nov. 5,” Breen said.

In Portland, which has about 50,781 registered voters, City Clerk Ashley Rand said there have been 571 new registrations and changes to registrations since July 1.

The city does not break down its data between new registrations or updates made if someone moves, changes their name or switches parties.

“We haven’t heard of any particular event or movement spiking new registrations,” Rand said in an email.

She noted that the secretary of state’s office reminded Mainers in July about the upcoming election and shared an online voter registration link.

In addition, Rand said the city announced last week that voters can now request an absentee ballot for November, and included the online voter registration link in its news release and social media posts to remind voters to make sure they are registered and that their addresses and names are up to date.