Earlier this week, the R Street Institute, a public policy organization which promotes “free markets and limited, effective government” to solve problems, released a 50-state scorecard rating state election laws and policies. It’s both thorough (it assesses 17 items across six categories) and fair (it doesn’t bias strongly in favor of Democratic- or Republican-preferred policy). Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah score the highest, thereby demonstrating the rating system’s dynamic and non-prejudicial nature — Utah is an “all mail” state, while comparatively few Ohioans vote by mail. Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Wyoming score the lowest.
The full report includes eight, fifty-state tables. This alone makes the report something you should print and keep. If you want to know, e.g., which seven states don’t have online voter registration, you can quickly check page 19 to see that they are Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Want to know which states allow no-excuse early voting? That table is on page 35.
Starred ratings for all 50 states in the R Street Institute’s election policy scorecard.
Most of the items command broad consensus in the election administration field. For example, almost all election security professionals agree that paper ballots are important because they are “unhackable,” digitally immutable, and they allow for post-election hand count audits. Only Louisiana doesn’t use paper ballots — something it plans to change in future — and the state therefore gets zero points from R Street on that item.
Other items require a bit more of a political dance. On voter registration, R Street credits those states that integrate documented proof of citizenship (“DPOC”) in some capacity. But the report allows for different DPOC avenues, and use of the currently-in-litigation and somewhat-flawed federal SAVE program isn’t required for the maximum score. Similarly, the report gives credit for joining a multi-state data sharing agreement, but it doesn’t require membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), specifically — something that recently became a political football.
I might quibble with a few small decisions: for example, dinging states that offer more than 21-days of in-person early voting. But that’s inevitable with any multifaceted rating system. Overall, the effort itself is the best election law rating system I’ve seen, and, like Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah, R Street itself deserves five out five stars for this effort.
An Election Scorecard Worth Bookmarking
Earlier this week, the R Street Institute, a public policy organization which promotes “free markets and limited, effective government” to solve problems, released a 50-state scorecard rating state election laws and policies. It’s both thorough (it assesses 17 items across six categories) and fair (it doesn’t bias strongly in favor of Democratic- or Republican-preferred policy). Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah score the highest, thereby demonstrating the rating system’s dynamic and non-prejudicial nature — Utah is an “all mail” state, while comparatively few Ohioans vote by mail. Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Wyoming score the lowest.
The full report includes eight, fifty-state tables. This alone makes the report something you should print and keep. If you want to know, e.g., which seven states don’t have online voter registration, you can quickly check page 19 to see that they are Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Want to know which states allow no-excuse early voting? That table is on page 35.
Most of the items command broad consensus in the election administration field. For example, almost all election security professionals agree that paper ballots are important because they are “unhackable,” digitally immutable, and they allow for post-election hand count audits. Only Louisiana doesn’t use paper ballots — something it plans to change in future — and the state therefore gets zero points from R Street on that item.
Other items require a bit more of a political dance. On voter registration, R Street credits those states that integrate documented proof of citizenship (“DPOC”) in some capacity. But the report allows for different DPOC avenues, and use of the currently-in-litigation and somewhat-flawed federal SAVE program isn’t required for the maximum score. Similarly, the report gives credit for joining a multi-state data sharing agreement, but it doesn’t require membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), specifically — something that recently became a political football.
I might quibble with a few small decisions: for example, dinging states that offer more than 21-days of in-person early voting. But that’s inevitable with any multifaceted rating system. Overall, the effort itself is the best election law rating system I’ve seen, and, like Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah, R Street itself deserves five out five stars for this effort.