Survey: Unregistered, likely GOP voters in Wisconsin, Michigan want to participate in November | Wisconsin

(The Center Square) – Nearly two-thirds of the unregistered, likely Republican voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, want to get registered in time to vote in November.

A new survey from Campaign Now says there is a huge number of untapped, and unregistered voters who lean toward the right and 25% of them want help in getting registered.

“The fact that 62% of the respondents said they were interested in participating in 2024 shows what an opportunity there is for engagement and the fact that nearly a quarter of those respondents said they would like assistance demonstrates that this should be a priority for conservative campaigns, the Republican Party and like-minded public policy organizations,” Campaign Now’s John Connors said.

The survey said there is “a potential unregistered, likely GOP-aligned citizen cohort of about 3 million in the top 5 presidential swing states.” That includes 311,206 unregistered, likely Republican voters in Wisconsin, and 581,173 unregistered, likely Republican voters in Michigan.

Those are more than enough voters to swing Wisconsin and Michigan to former President Trump this year. Trump lost Wisconsin to President Biden by just more than 22,000 votes in 2020. He lost Michigan to Biden by about 154,000 votes.

Connors said most of the unregistered likely Republicans have been too busy with work and their families, while a sizable chunk simply do trust their local election officials.

“This may be the toughest citizen group to reach that I’ve ever seen,” Connor said. “There is a high level of apathy and mistrust in the political and electoral process and a deep inward focus on family and work priorities that makes this group understandably disengaged from registering as a voter, let alone participate in elections.”

Even with the distrust, and a bit of voter apathy, the survey said 62% said they’d like to vote in the 2024 presidential election.

But 62% of those voters also said they have little to no interest in getting the help it would take to register.

Connors said that is an issue, but he said Republicans and conservative grassroots organizations should not give-up on these unregistered voters.

“From my experience with some of the top organizations that focus on activating these types of nonvoters, it can cost $150-200 per new voter if an organization is realistically measuring all-in expenses like staff costs, marketing and advertising expenses when allocating it to a measurable new voter,” Connors explained. “But once a citizen is registered, they turn out above 93% so it’s really a great investment.”

Campaign Now admits its survey size is small. Connors said they tried to contact about 15,000 unregistered non-voters in Wisconsin and Michigan. They received 300 completed surveys, of which the 162 sample was only subset that admitted they were unregistered.