Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on a mission to engage Democratic voters across New York State who have been or are at risk of being categorized as “inactive.” But at which point someone becomes an inactive voter and what it actually means for a person’s ability to take part in elections varies across states.
The laws regarding inactive status can even differ within a state across county lines—as in New York, where the congresswoman visited several upstate cities at the end of September as part of her Project Reactivation campaign. She has been targeting Democratic populations she feels have been neglected by the party, including working-class communities and college students.
During Ocasio-Cortez’s stop in Syracuse, she called the threshold to become an inactive voter in New York State “hazy,” specifically referring to confusion regarding the definition of a federal election, which can differ by county: “Is it two congressional elections in a row, which [could mean] you are purged after four years of not voting? Is it two presidential elections in a row, eight years? What if it's a congressional election and then a special election, which could be even shorter? We don't know,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “which then means there can be issues subject to each county—and there are red counties, blue counties, and all sorts of counties in New York State. And right now,” she added, “nationally, the right to vote is under attack everywhere.”
Andrew Aydin, who worked on the late Congressman John Lewis’s staff and now serves in a strategic advisory capacity to Rock the Vote, the nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to informing young people about their voting rights, tells Teen Vogue that these rules often impact college students who are voting away from home. When a person moves out of state to go to school and doesn't update their address, for example, they are at risk of becoming inactive and, ultimately, getting deleted from the state registry.
“Our democracy should welcome participation from everyone, particularly young people,” Aydin says, “because each election will have a greater impact on their lives than anyone else. And when you make it more difficult for people to register and to vote, you send a message that their votes aren't welcome.”
Most states must comply with the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter Act, which established certain voter registration requirements in 1993, including allowing American citizens to register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver’s license. The act also created the rules for how states maintain their registration lists for federal elections, requiring they be kept “accurate and current, such as identifying persons who have become ineligible due to having died or moved outside the jurisdiction.”
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the US Election Assistance Commission reported that more than 19 million voters were purged from the rolls between 2020 and 2022, a 21% increase from 2014 and 2016. Says Aydin, “These rules and these regulations and these laws are changing in ways that make it hard for anybody who's also earning a living or going to school to keep up.”
Through Project Reactivation, Ocasio-Cortez said that she and her team have identified about 100,000 voters across just New York State who are inactive or at risk of being classified as such. Project coordinators plan to make phone calls, send letters, and knock on the door of each of these voters ahead of the midterm elections next month.
“And what we are going to ask them to do is to protect their voter registration status,” she explained. “Because all you need to do to get out of that risk of being purged is to vote just once. If they show up to the polls and they cast a vote in November, their voter registration will be reactivated.” She hopes the initiative will build a habit of voting, especially among young people who may feel underrepresented in politics.
“College students, you might also fall into inactive status unknowingly because you might register to vote here because you're going to be here for four years,” Ocasio-Cortez’s field director Destiny Cruz said. “Four years is maybe or maybe not a federal election, right? So if you go back home, you might [be] put in an inactive status, and you're at risk of being purged on the voter files. And this is so critical, right?”
In 21 states, voters who don’t engage with election officials or don’t vote for a certain period of time are at risk of being removed from the voter rolls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The organization also states that list maintenance keeps voter registration rules accurate and protects against election fraud, noting that this is “not a simple process.”
But there’s debate about whether the “inactive” designation is truly helpful, including concerns about removing names due to inactivity leading to more errors and disruption for qualified voters. Rock the Vote found that voter purging has disproportionately impacted people of color, given that “the purge rate is significantly higher in jurisdictions previously covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” where there’s a broader history of discrimination in state and local governments.
Rock the Vote’s website also references another concern related to inactive voter status, pointing out that, “Under federal law, voters have a right to choose not to vote and are not to be penalized for skipping elections. There are several reasons a voter may have skipped multiple elections. Voting is not a use it or lose it right.”
“There's a complex system across the country,” Aydin says. “Every state's different, and so it's incredibly important, one, that voters get the information that they need; two, that they get a process that makes sense for them; and three, that states do everything necessary to ensure that the people who live in their state, particularly young people, are able to be represented in their elections.”
Voters who are considered inactive may be able to vote on Election Day using a provisional ballot, which enables those who believe they’re actively registered to cast their vote pending later confirmation. As of last month, 47 states have established a provisional voting process; but each state determines what its particular process looks like, which creates more inconsistencies that can be hard for voters to track. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Lab, in the 2024 federal election, over 1.7 million provisional ballots were issued, the United States Election Assistance Commission found.
Ultimately, Aydin emphasizes the importance of making voting accessible, saying there’s nothing “more American” than having the opportunity to participate in democracy. “Young people are working. Young people are going to school. They have a life,” he says. “I remember Congressman Lewis used to say, ‘Voting should be as easy as drinking a glass of water,’ and I think we have gotten very far away from that standard.”