The Biden administration used a Department of Energy (DOE) program to try to increase voter registration ahead of the 2022 midterms, according to RealClearPolitics.
DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) was established to reduce energy costs for low-income households, and the Biden administration sought to steer program participants to vote, according to RealClearPolitics. The DOE launched the “Get Energized To Vote” campaign ahead of the 2022 midterms, specifically targeting low-income households that qualified for the energy program.
“By targeting those individuals who interact with DOEs weatherization program, DOE aims to aid in increasing turnout and reducing the barriers that disabled persons faced at the polls,” a September 2021 DOE memorandum sent to Biden’s Domestic Policy Chief Susan Rice says, according to RealClearPolitics. While nudging WAP recipients to register to vote was a main priority, the memo also reportedly mentioned the intent to target “first time voters, college students, voters with disabilities, and voters with limited English proficiency.”
Former President Joe Biden signed an executive order in March 2021 that required federal agencies to promote voter registration, a policy that President Donald Trump rescinded in March 2025. Under Biden’s order, the DOE directed around 35,000 households participating in the energy welfare program to voting information resources, RealClearPolitics reported.
Established in 1976 under the Carter administration, the WAP aims to provide energy-efficiency services to poor American households, particularly those at or below 200% of the poverty line, according to the DOE. Other agencies under the Biden administration pushed Americans to become registered and active voters, with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) partnering with a left-wing policy group to boost voter turnout, for example.
Prior to 2024, convention wisdom generally held that Democrats fare better in higher-turnout elections. During the 2016 and 2020 elections, voters who had not participated in previous elections favored Democrat candidates, though the 2024 election results divulged from that pattern, with some analyses projecting that Trump’s margin of victory would have been greater if more voters showed up at the polls.
Though the law prevents federal agencies from encouraging partisan voting, Biden’s order triggered an uproar, with several attorneys general accusing the administration of attempting to “convert the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization.” Some Congressional Republicans also spoke out against the order, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil writing at the time that “allowing federal employees from the Biden Administration to flood election administration sites threatens election integrity and reduces Americans’ confidence.”
The DOE did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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