By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com
Officials say voter turnout across the U.S. has fluctuated due to rules, regulations and standards such as race, economy, voter laws and restrictions.
A new study, “Cost of Voting in the American States,” that compiled the “largest assemblage of state election laws” says it can confirm just that.
The study, which was conducted by Quan Li, Michael J. Pomante II and Scot Schraufnagel, concluded that Mississippi was the hardest state for voters to get to the polls in 2016 due to restrictions in state elections laws.
Oregon was ranked the easiest state to vote in for the 2016 election cycle with Colorado, California and Nevada placing in the next top spots, respectively.
The team used a principal component analysis and information on 33 different state election laws—specifically dealing with registration and voting laws—where differences in registration deadlines carried the most weight.
The data was broken down into seven different categories to create a Cost of Voting Index (COVI) for each of the 50 American states in each presidential election year from 1996 through 2016.
The seven different issue areas included registration deadline, voter regular restrictions, regular drive restrictions, pre-registration laws, voting inconvenience, voter I.D. laws and poll hours. For a breakdown of these areas, see below:
| 1. Registration deadline (ratio variable) | No. of days prior to election that registration must occur |
| 2. Voter reg. restrictions (additive indicator) | Same day registration not allowed for all elections |
| Same day registration not located at poll locations | |
| Felons not allowed to register | |
| Mental competency req. for voter registrationa | |
| No online voter registrationb | |
| Same day registration not allowed in presidential electionc | |
| No automatic voter registrationd | |
| 3. Reg. drive restrictionse (additive indicator) | Official certification required by state |
| Participation in state training course required | |
| Group required to submit documents to state | |
| Penalty imposed for any violation of deadline or rule | |
| 4. Preregistration laws (0–5; Likert scale) | 0 = 16-year-olds allowed to preregister 1 = 17-year-olds allowed to preregister 2 = 17.5-year-olds allowed to register 3 = allowed to register 90 days prior to 18th birthday 4 = allowed to register 60 days prior to 18th birthday 5 = no preregistration allowed |
| 5. Voting inconvenience (additive indicator) | No early voting |
| Excuse required for absentee voting | |
| State sanctioned excuse required for absentee voting | |
| No in-person absentee voting | |
| No all mail votingf | |
| No “ask once and always able to vote absentee”g | |
| No time off from work for votingh | |
| No time off from work with pay for votingh | |
| Reduced number of polling stationsi | |
| 6. Voter ID lawsj (0–4; Likert scale) | 0 = no ID required to cast a ballot, only signature 1 = non-photo ID required not strictly enforced 2 = photo ID required not strictly enforced 3 = non-photo ID required strictly enforced 4 = photo ID required strictly enforced |
| 7. Poll hours (ratio variable) | Min. and max. poll hours (averaged and reversed) |
Although the study looked into these seven categories to conclude the difficulty of voting, it noted that there is “considerable unevenness in number of variables included in the building of the COVI each president election cycle.”
The unevenness is due to states amending laws each year, the study cites.
Quan Li is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. Michael J. Pomante II is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida. Scot Schraufnagel is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
The study was originally published online prior to being a part of the Election Law Journal, Volume 17, Issue 3.
