Today’s Links
Articles:
New York Times – The ‘Cost’ of Voting in America: A Look at Where It’s Easiest and Hardest
The Hill – These are the most difficult states to vote in
Michael J. Pomante II, Ph.D. & Scot Schraufnagel, Ph.D.: Cost of Voting Index Study website
Study Summary: Cost of Voting Index summary in PDF
Help for Registering to Vote:
USA.gov – Find Your Local Election Office
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – REGISTER AND VOTE IN YOUR STATE
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
We conclude our week on voter registration with the release of the 2022 Cost of Voting Index, an ongoing study of voting access around the country. Spoiler alert, states with vote-by-mail and automatic voter registration ranked highly, while states with out-of-date voting practices and recent conspiracy-fueled anti-voter legislation finished dead last.
The study follows multiple factors on voting access going back to 1996. For voter registration, rankings weigh state laws on the number of days prior to the election a voter must be registered to be able to vote, a month before for 14 states, to Election Day registration for 23 states. Other negative factors include requiring more documents than federal guidelines to register, mental competency rules, no online voter registration, or not allowing felons to register after incarceration.
Positive factors include allowing 17-year-olds to pre-register, and allowing same-day registration. States like Colorado got points for automatic voter registration, which helped it register 350,000 more voters since 2020, according the New York Times.
Top states for voter access included Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Hawaii, and Colorado. The most difficult states included Texas, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi and New Hampshire, not coincidentally, where some of the most draconian barriers to voting have been added since the 2020 election.
A link to articles and a summary of the study are available at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.