--- title: How Registering to Vote Became a Part of American Politics description: On National Voter Registration Day—September's fourth Tuesday—Americans participate in a process that has long caused controversy canonical: https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-26T16:00:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:25:38.000Z article:section: History og:title: Here's How Registering to Vote Became a Thing og:description: On National Voter Registration Day—the fourth Tuesday in September—Americans are encouraged to participate in a process that has long caused controversy og:url: https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte048e8e472965934/6988a6ef8e0601d2ba4678a3/voter-reg.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Voter Registration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Registering to Vote Became a Thing twitter:description: On National Voter Registration Day—the fourth Tuesday in September—Americans are encouraged to participate in a process that has long caused controversy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte048e8e472965934/6988a6ef8e0601d2ba4678a3/voter-reg.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # For National Voter Registration Day, Here's How Registering to Vote Became a Thing ## Video: 50 Years of the American Voting Rights Act [Watch (HLS stream): 50 Years of the American Voting Rights Act](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EVi769Eg.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2015-08-06. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was centuries in the making._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:25 PM UTCPublished: Sep 26, 2016 4:00 PM UTC  Denver election commissioners on hand for voter registration in Denver on July 9, 1968 Denver election commissioners on hand for voter registration in Denver on July 9, 1968Bill Johnson—Denver Post / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:25 PM UTCPublished: Sep 26, 2016 4:00 PM UTC On Sept. 24, during [National Voter Registration Day](http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org), volunteers all over the United States will help citizens sign up to vote in the upcoming election. For something that sounds so simple in theory, voter registration has [long](http://time.com/3985603/voting-rights-act-1965-history/) been the source of conflict in American politics. As the 2020 campaign gets underway, concerns range from the modern problem of [hacking](http://time.com/4471042/fbi-voter-database-breach-arizona-illinois/) to the ever-present question of [why and where it gets easier or harder](http://time.com/4080238/voting-rights-red-blue-states-2016/) to register and vote. A quick look back at the first voter registration laws in the United States reveals that, when it comes to registration, things have never been simple. In 1929, Joseph P. Harris, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, surveyed the state of voter registration for the Brookings Institution. The[ hundreds of pages of research](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b22360;view=1up;seq=87;size=75) that he produced included an overview of how the whole system started: --- > “” --- According to one [explanation](https://books.google.com/books?id=L5ZF1LVgiAwC&pg=PA46&dq=1800+massachusetts+voter+registration&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq0en7vaHPAhUGJx4KHRMMD0YQ6AEISzAI#v=onepage&q=1800%20massachusetts%20voter%20registration&f=false), old restrictions on voting were seen by some as undemocratic, but the growing population and expanding suffrage meant that it was no longer possible for polling officials to just recognize the voters by sight. And early voter registration got the legal O.K. in Massachusetts too, in the 1832 case of [_Capen v. Foster_](https://books.google.com/books?id=y4a2AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA632&lpg=PA632&dq=%22capen+v.+foster%22&source=bl&ots=6c7TbLIbb0&sig=4NeiDgIlzj50UvNYOIUJspbmI%5FY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir08bP%5FZ7PAhWq44MKHdVxBn04ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=%22capen%20v.%20foster%22&f=false), after a man who was qualified to vote turned up to cast his ballot and was denied the right because his name was not on the list of voters that, according to an 1821 Boston law, the city had drawn up. The court ruled that the existence of a voter registration system did not interfere with the right to vote, as long as the voter was given the appropriate opportunity to make sure he was registered. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century, however, that the idea of voter registration really spread throughout the country. From the start, the question about voter registration that endures to this day was immediately an issue: Were these laws designed to cut down on fraud, or was the idea to keep certain types of people from voting? As Alexander Keyssar points out in [_The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States_](https://books.google.com/books?id=UijIgQP0xF8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=register%20registration&f=false), early voter rolls were often compiled by assessors who went door-to-door, and they often missed poorer people. Other early registration systems, at a time of [great nativist sentiment](http://time.com/4280458/republican-party-know-nothings/), were seen to target Catholics or immigrants, with tactics such as requiring registration only in areas with large minority populations. On the other hand, there was also serious concern in the United States that, without registration, a corrupt political machine system could sway election results. As Daniel P. Tokaji [put it ](http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=wmborj)in a 2008 _William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal_ article about voter registration: --- > “” --- That paradox has endured as the registration system has evolved, and [creative solutions](http://time.com/money/4408013/pokemon-go-register-to-vote/) are a frequent topic of discussion. For now,[ most Americans](http://time.com/4443588/register-vote-voter-state-laws/) will find that, if they want to vote, they need to register—and that there’s no time like the present. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/"},"headline":"For National Voter Registration Day, Here's How Registering to Vote Became a Thing","datePublished":"2016-09-26T16:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:25:38.000Z","description":"A process that has long caused controversy","url":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte048e8e472965934/6988a6ef8e0601d2ba4678a3/voter-reg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte048e8e472965934/6988a6ef8e0601d2ba4678a3/voter-reg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Voter Registration","caption":"JUL 9 1968, JUL 10 1968; Branch Voter Registration Opens; Branch registration opened Tuesday and Den","creditText":"Bill Johnson—Denver Post / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/","name":"For National Voter Registration Day, Here's How Registering to Vote Became a Thing"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"50 Years of the American Voting Rights Act","description":"The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was centuries in the making.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EVi769Eg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-08-06T17:26:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EVi769Eg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/","duration":"PT1M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```