Low voter turnout is no accident, according to a ranking of the ease of voting in all 50 states [View all]
To create the index, the researchers collected data on 33 types of election laws that generally fell into seven different categories: voter-registration deadlines, restrictions on registrations and registration drives, preregistration laws that allow people under 18 to register in advance of their first elections, laws governing ease of voting (like early and absentee voting), voter ID requirements and polling hours.
They mashed each of these qualitative factors together in a statistical blender to create a top-line summary number of the ease of voting and registration in each state. For the 2016 election, states are ranked according to their position in this index in the map above.
What sort of effect do these laws have on voter turnout? Some quick calculations suggest that the effect is potentially quite large: The five most restrictive states had turnouts in 2016 that were, on average, nearly nine percentage points lower than turnout in the five easiest states to vote in. If we plot the Cost of Voting Index rank against 2016 turnout, it looks like this.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/22/low-voter-turnout-is-no-accident-according-ranking-ease-voting-all-states/
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