Young voters in 2026
Registration and party choice among Marylanders aged 18 to 22, from the State Board of Elections' statewide voter list as of 2026-08-12. This page counts registrations, not votes.
The short version
- From January 1 through August 12, 15,646 Marylanders aged 18 to 22 registered for the first time in 2026. Counted straight from the file, that is 3% more than in the same stretch of 2022 and 35% more than in 2018.
- Earlier years look smaller than they were, because some of their registrants have since left the list. Putting back the voters who left between the September 2024 and August 2026 files, this year's count is 4% below 2022's and 17% above 2018's. Voters also left before the earlier file was made, so even this flatters this year.
- 43% of this year's new registrants aged 18 to 22 are unaffiliated, up from 26% in 2018. Among new registrants 23 and older it is 38%, up from 26%.
- Among everyone registered today, 18-to-22-year-olds are the most unaffiliated age group: 38%, against 22% of voters 23 and older.
- The Republican share of new registrants aged 18 to 22 went from 16% in 2022 to 9%. The biggest county drops were in Calvert, Cecil and Washington, by 14 to 16 points.
Registration pace
First-time Maryland registrations by voters aged 18 to 22 when they registered, January 1 through August 12 of each year, so every year is measured over the same stretch.
| Year | Jan 1 to August 12 | Whole year | Share that came after August 12 | 18 to 22 share of all new |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 11,564 | 23,281 | 50% | 30% |
| 2022 | 15,203 | 28,024 | 46% | 27% |
| 2026 | 15,646 | not yet known | – | 28% |
Earlier years, with the voters who left put back
People leave the list when they move away, die or are removed, so the same registrants are fewer in a later file. Two voter lists show how many, for exactly this stretch of the year. Putting those voters back gives a fairer comparison, though still a generous one to 2026: voters also left before the earlier file was made.
| Year (Jan 1 to August 12) | In the September 2024 file | In this file | Gone since | 2026 against this file | 2026 against the earlier file |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 13,382 | 11,564 | 13.6% | +35% | +17% |
| 2022 | 16,296 | 15,203 | 6.7% | +3% | −4% |
Ages are measured on the day each voter registered, so the same registrants fall in the same row in both files. Weeks with fewer than 10 registrations are hidden in the data and counted as 5 here.
Most of the year's young registrations may still be coming. In 2018 and 2022, between 46% and 50% of the year's registrations by 18-to-22-year-olds came after August 12, including during early voting, when Maryland allows same-day registration. If 2026 follows the same pattern it would end the year with roughly 29,000 to 31,000 new young registrants. That is an estimate, not a finding.
3 weeks in these lines had fewer than 10 registrations, which the data hides. Each is drawn as a number from 1 to 9 chosen so its line ends at the exact total, so a line can be off by a few voters out of thousands.
The move toward unaffiliated
From 2010 through 2020, new registrants aged 18 to 22 and older ones chose unaffiliated at similar rates, within 3 points of each other in every year. Since 2021 the young share has been higher every year, by roughly 5 to 8 points.
New registrants, January 1 to August 12
| Year and age when they registered | New registrants | Democratic | Republican | Unaffiliated | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018, aged 18 to 22 | 11,564 | 58% | 14% | 26% | 2% |
| 2018, aged 23 and older | 27,499 | 53% | 19% | 26% | 2% |
| 2022, aged 18 to 22 | 15,203 | 44% | 16% | 37% | 3% |
| 2022, aged 23 and older | 42,110 | 48% | 18% | 30% | 3% |
| 2026, aged 18 to 22 | 15,646 | 45% | 9% | 43% | 3% |
| 2026, aged 23 and older | 41,003 | 45% | 15% | 38% | 3% |
Everyone registered today, by age today
| Age | Registered voters | Unaffiliated | Democratic | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-22 | 315,145 | 38% | 43% | 16% |
| 23-29 | 511,385 | 29% | 50% | 18% |
| 30-44 | 1,178,881 | 28% | 51% | 19% |
| 45-64 | 1,423,454 | 22% | 50% | 26% |
| 65+ | 1,122,641 | 14% | 56% | 29% |
| All 23 and older | 4,236,361 | 22% | 52% | 24% |
Active and inactive voters together. Left out: 9,552 registered voters under 18 and 68 whose birth dates imply an age over 115.
County differences
Registration pace varies a lot by county. The table compares January 1 to August 12 of 2022 and 2026. Click a heading to sort. Republican shares are shown only for counties with at least 250 new young registrants in both years.
Among everyone on the rolls today, 18-to-22-year-olds are 12 to 18 points more unaffiliated than voters 23 and older in every one of Maryland's 24 counties.
- fewer: under -37.5%
- -37.5 to -12.5%
- -12.5 to 12.5%
- 12.5 to 37.5%
- more: 37.5% or more
- less Republican: under -12 pts
- -12 to -4 pts
- -4 to 4 pts
- 4 to 12 pts
- more Republican: 12 pts or more
- too few to compare
| County | Aged 18 to 22, 2022 | 2026 | Change | All ages, change | Republican share, 2022 | 2026 | Change | Unaffiliated gap today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calvert | 294 | 269 | −9% | −13% | 36% | 20% | −15.6 pts | +15.6 pts |
| Cecil | 344 | 254 | −26% | −22% | 32% | 18% | −14.2 pts | +14.7 pts |
| Washington | 400 | 430 | +8% | −3% | 30% | 16% | −13.9 pts | +16.9 pts |
| Carroll | 320 | 398 | +24% | +4% | 38% | 25% | −12.1 pts | +15.2 pts |
| Anne Arundel | 1,405 | 1,461 | +4% | +7% | 22% | 11% | −11.7 pts | +15.7 pts |
| Harford | 742 | 667 | −10% | −7% | 26% | 16% | −9.7 pts | +17.0 pts |
| St. Mary's | 406 | 315 | −22% | −13% | 31% | 21% | −9.3 pts | +14.8 pts |
| Frederick | 546 | 552 | +1% | −6% | 22% | 13% | −8.6 pts | +16.0 pts |
| Wicomico | 304 | 311 | +2% | −2% | 21% | 14% | −7.9 pts | +16.7 pts |
| Howard | 611 | 950 | +55% | +26% | 12% | 6% | −6.7 pts | +14.4 pts |
| Baltimore County | 2,076 | 2,398 | +16% | +5% | 15% | 9% | −6.1 pts | +15.0 pts |
| Charles | 557 | 629 | +13% | +1% | 12% | 6% | −6.0 pts | +13.2 pts |
| Montgomery | 2,260 | 1,803 | −20% | −22% | 8% | 5% | −3.5 pts | +14.4 pts |
| Prince George's | 2,503 | 2,922 | +17% | +17% | 5% | 3% | −2.1 pts | +17.0 pts |
| Baltimore City | 1,552 | 1,515 | −2% | +2% | 6% | 5% | −0.8 pts | +12.2 pts |
| Allegany | 184 | 137 | −26% | −17% | too few | too few | – | +15.8 pts |
| Caroline | 107 | 86 | −20% | −17% | too few | too few | – | +15.5 pts |
| Dorchester | 86 | 100 | +16% | −3% | too few | too few | – | +18.1 pts |
| Garrett | 59 | 59 | 0% | −19% | too few | too few | – | +13.8 pts |
| Kent | 37 | 56 | +51% | +7% | too few | too few | – | +15.8 pts |
| Queen Anne's | 112 | 100 | −11% | −8% | too few | too few | – | +14.8 pts |
| Somerset | 89 | 64 | −28% | −17% | too few | too few | – | +17.0 pts |
| Talbot | 89 | 64 | −28% | −1% | too few | too few | – | +18.3 pts |
| Worcester | 120 | 106 | −12% | +5% | too few | too few | – | +14.7 pts |
"All ages" counts every first-time registrant aged 18 or older, not just those 18 to 22, so a county where young registrants rose faster than all ages is one where young people drove the change. The last column is how many points more of 18-to-22-year-olds than of voters 23 and older are unaffiliated among everyone registered today.
Caveats
- This is one snapshot, taken August 2026. It does not include anyone who registered after 2026-08-12, and the part of the year after August 12 has historically held about half of the year's young registrations. The 2026 numbers are partial, and comparisons cover January 1 to August 12 of each year.
- The file only includes people who are still registered. Earlier years are undercounted, and two voter lists show by how much. Between the September 2024 file and this one, the young registrants of January 1 to August 12 2018 went from 13,382 to 11,564 (13.6% gone), and those of 2022 went from 16,296 to 15,203 (6.7% gone). That is only the time between the two files; the loss before the earlier file was made is not visible, so the true undercount is larger.
- Party is the voter's party today, not the party they chose when they registered. Someone who registered unaffiliated in 2018 and later joined a party, often to vote in Maryland's closed primaries, appears as a party member. That makes the past look less unaffiliated than it was.
- "New registrant" means a first-time Maryland registration: the county and state registration dates match, so people who moved between counties are left out. Age is the voter's age on the day they registered, and only registrations at 18 or older count.
- Voters who pre-registered at 16 or 17 are left out. The youngest recent pre-registrants are not in the file yet, so including them would make 2026 look artificially low.
- Small counties are noisy. A change of a few dozen voters can swing their percentages by 10 or 20 points, so counties under 250 new young registrants in either year are not compared.
The aggregates behind this page are new_registrants.json, new_registrant_weeks.json and age_detail_by_party.json. Counts from 1 to 9 voters are hidden. More on the file is on the voter file page.