Voter registration reconsidered - Putting first things first is not enough

Research on voter participation has led to the conventional wisdom that reg istered people will vote and that registration requirements inhibit voter t urnout. However, research on which this belief is based improperly tests re gistered people who have no registration needs, and thus, it does not accur ately identify the contextual influences associated with the registration d ecision. Contrary to past research, this analysis of January unregistered i ndividuals from the 1980 ANES panel study suggests longer registration-clos ing periods increase the likelihood of November registration. An expectatio n of voting and uncertainty about the future may explain the phenomenon. Al so, this analysis finds that registration requirements do not appear to inh ibit registration for election-year movers.