Hedy Tung, Contributing Photographer
Data compiled by the News indicates a gradual increase in New Haven voter registration rates since the turn of the century.
The Elm City has had a consistent Democratic plurality among registered voters since the 2000s. During the 2018 midterm elections, slightly more than 40 percent of the city’s residents were registered as Democrats, while about 2.66 percent registered as Republicans.
In 2000, about 54 percent of the city registered to vote in the general election. This increased to about 64.35 percent by 2016, before dropping during the 2018 midterm elections to 58.83 percent. The decrease in 2018 is a common trend — midterm election registration tends to be lower than presidential election registration.
While voter registration rates have been mostly increasing since 2000, Republican registration rates had been at a steady decline until the 2016 election, when they shot up. Democratic registration has also been increasing since 2000.
Visualization by Darwin Do, Data Editor
Democrat Sergio Rodriguez, a former alder and registrar of voters hopeful, said he believes that voter registration increases as more candidates run in elections. He also noted that this year’s presidential race has encouraged many people to vote.
“The presidential race is a very significant and important race,” Rodriguez told the News. “There’s a lot of folks who are trying to get out and vote, which is a good thing.”
Yale student groups such as Yale Votes and Every Vote Counts have been working in recent years to increase voter turnout among New Haven residents and students. As thousands of students flock to Yale’s campus every semester, resources for students to vote in New Haven have grown over the years.
Raymond Lucarelli ’23, a member of Yale Votes, told the News that the group reached out to Yalies all over the United States this year to engage voters across the country.
“We canvassed neighborhoods at the beginning of the semester, physically registering people to vote, accumulating polling information … for each of the 30 wards and sent graphics to alders [and] DTC co-chairs to hand out to constituents,” Grace Whittington ’22, a member of the Yale College Democrats, told the News.
Yale student participation in elections has grown greatly in recent years. Yale’s voter participation rate went from being 3.1 percent lower than the average across U.S. academic institutions in 2014 to being 7.7 percent above the average in 2018.
The number of Yale students registered to vote increased by 4.2 percent in that same time frame.
Data analysis and visualization by Darwin Do. Contact him at darwin.do@yale.edu.
Ángela Pérez | angela.perez@yale.edu