State Voting Rules Index (2026)

What the index shows

5 jurisdictions score 100, the strictest combination measured — a strict photo-ID requirement alongside an excuse requirement to vote absentee: Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee.

6 score 0, requiring no ID and mailing a ballot to every registered voter: California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont.

The remaining states fall between the two, and most cluster in the middle — the practical rules a voter meets are usually a mix rather than either extreme.

Methodology

Every input is published below so the score can be checked, disputed, or reweighted. Nothing here is asserted independently: both components come from datasets we publish separately, each sourced to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Component 1 — Voter identification (50% weight)

Scored 0–4 following the National Conference of State Legislatures's own taxonomy. The primary distinction is strict versus non-strict — whether a voter without acceptable ID can still cast a ballot that counts — and only then whether a photo is required. That is why a strict non-photo requirement scores above a photo request: a photo request with an affidavit fallback asks less of a voter than a non-photo document with no fallback at all.

• 0 — No ID required
• 1 — Non-photo ID requested
• 2 — Photo ID requested
• 3 — Non-photo ID required (strict)
• 4 — Photo ID required (strict)

Component 2 — Absentee ballot access (50% weight)

Scored 0–2 by how restricted access to a mail ballot is.

• 0 — Ballot mailed to every voter
• 1 — No-excuse absentee
• 2 — Excuse required

Combining them

Each component is converted to a percentage of its own maximum, then weighted equally and summed, producing a 0–100 score. Equal weighting is a judgement call — any split would be — so it is set at the one that requires no defending, and both component scores are published so anyone who disagrees can reweight them.

Why tiers and not ranks 1–51

The inputs produce 8 distinct scores, so states are grouped into tiers and listed alphabetically within each. Ranking them 1 through 51 would require inventing tiebreakers the underlying data does not support, and false precision is worse than none.

What it does not measure

This is a measure of rules as written, not of outcomes. It does not capture registration requirements, early-voting windows, polling-place availability, drop-box rules, turnout, or how any rule is administered in practice. A state can score low here and still be difficult to vote in, or score high and run elections that voters find straightforward.

The index

Grouped by score, strictest first, alphabetical within each tier. The bar encodes the score — the number is printed on every row, so the reading never depends on colour.

Jurisdictions per score tier · stricter to the left

Sources

Both components are drawn from the National Conference of State Legislatures. See our underlying trackers for the per-state detail and citations: Voter ID Laws by State and Mail-in / Absentee Voting Rules by State.

Primary source: National Conference of State Legislatures