More voters, less party affiliation 2 years into automatic voter registration

Nevada has backed the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1912 except for 1976 and 2016, a tendency that distinguishes the state as a political battleground not reliably tied to either major party.

That trend has shifted in recent years, including in 2018 when Democratic candidates took control of almost every major state and federal elected office in Nevada.

But heading into the 2022 midterms, Democrats no longer have a clear advantage in voter registration, as non-major party voters surpassed Democratic and Republican voters for the first time in state history last August.

That change was largely driven by Nevada’s automatic voter registration (AVR) system, which has added more than 320,000 new voters since its launch in 2020 and even helped set a record for active registered voters in the state in August. Nevada has also seen a significant rise in the percentage of residents aged 18 and older who are registered to vote — that rate rose from 66 percent in July 2019 to 76 percent in July 2021, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and secretary of state’s office.

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/more-voters-less-party-affiliation-2-years-into-automatic-voter-registration