Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
I think it means that people are paying attention, that there’s a younger generation that’s definitely paying attention. With 30 some-odd days left to go, people are connecting these major moments in American history with action at the ballot box. I think these terrible losses are translating for people into action, or taking that and doing something and connecting the dots between the world they want to create and voting.
— Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey, commenting on the surge in voter registrations in the days following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, during an interview with NBC News. Vote.org had 139,046 registration verifications the weekend following Ginsburg’s passing (a 118 percent increase from the weekend prior) and received about 41,000 new voter registrations (a 68 percent increase) as well as nearly 35,000 mail ballot requests (an increase of 42 percent). Hailey said there was also a large increase in voter registrations and mail ballot requests after the first week of protests following the death of George Floyd.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.