Thanks to their coronavirus panic, Democrats have lost the edge in registering people to vote.
The Republican Party has edged out the Democrats in the race to sign up new voters — and coronavirus lockdowns are to blame, a new report says.
New registrations cratered in the last three months, says TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm. In May of this year, 194,596 new voters were registered nationwide, according to TargetSmart’s report. That’s just 13 percent of the 1,490,631 who registered in May 2016.
In at least five battleground states, Democrats appear to have borne the brunt of the damage during the COVID-shutdown period.
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In Maine, for example, 59 percent of new voters registered as Dems pre-coronavirus — but only 40 percent have done so in the months since.
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The new voters who did manage to send in applications were older and whiter than those who had been recruited before the pandemic hit. Voters in those demographic groups are expected to break for President Trump, rather than for Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, in November. [New York Post]
In other news, the coronavirus has put a damper on Latino voter enthusiasm. Biden will have to make it up by trying to undercut President Trump with white voters.
59% of Latinos said they intend to vote, compared with 73% of Latino registered voters who said they were certain to vote in February. @LatinoDecisions told me the pandemic is partly to blame.
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) July 10, 2020
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