- A Washington, D.C.–based think tank has released an election policy scorecard for all fifty states
- North Carolina scored relatively well across six election policy areas
- There is still room for improvement to make North Carolina elections better administered and more secure
A national think tank recently rated all fifty states on election policy. North Carolina scored relatively well, but it was among the states that still have “room for improvement.” There are specific election policy changes we can implement to make our elections better run and more secure.
A Washington think tank rates state election policies
The R Street Institute, a center-right think tank “committed to classical liberalism, principled pluralism, and a more civil civic culture,” announced the release of its election policy 50-state scorecard in late July.
Their basic finding is that the United States has a “strong national foundation.” Of course, elections are run by the states, so there would naturally be some variation across the country.
Only four states earned the highest rating of five stars: Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah. The announcement cited their “strong policies for maintaining accurate voter lists, verifying the identity of voters, and providing a range of convenient and secure options for voting on or before election day.”
Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Likewise, each of the three states at the bottom of R Street’s scorecard is there for a different reason:
Mississippi, New Hampshire and Wyoming need the most improvement, each with an overall score of 3 stars. The drivers of these relatively lower scores varied by state. For example, New Hampshire and Mississippi earned low scores in early voting, while Wyoming’s lowest scores were in voter list maintenance.
The Heritage Foundation has run its own Election Integrity Scorecard since 2021. The organizations emphasize different policies, which result in different scores for some states. For example, Utah is tied for R Street’s top score but is 28th on Heritage’s. On the other hand, Mississippi is at the bottom of R Street’s scorecard but 11th on Heritage’s.
R Street rates North Carolina election administration as good but not great
So, how did North Carolina do on R Street’s scorecard?
They rated the Tar Heel State 4.5 of 5 stars based on their assessment of 18 election policies across six main categories. (By comparison, Heritage judges North Carolina’s election policies more harshly, giving the state a score of only 70 percent.)
Under “Voter Eligibility,” North Carolina received full credit for its participation in the federal SAVE program for voter roll list maintenance based on noncitizenship, for allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote, and for automatically restoring voting rights upon full completion of a felony sentence.
The state received high marks under “Voter Registration” for allowing same-day registration only with retrievable ballots, allowing online registration, and not using automatic voter registration. It also earned full credit under “voter list maintenance” for using National Change-of-Address data for list maintenance and using several databases to remove the dead from voter rolls.
Under “Voting Before Election” day, R Street found that North Carolina’s 17 days of early voting fall in a “Goldilocks zone,” so to speak, of between seven and 21 days. R Street also found that the state does not require an excuse for absentee-by-mail voting and that election day is the deadline for absentee ballots. All those policies scored full credit, as did the state’s voter ID requirement and curing process for correcting problems with absentee ballots under “Verifying Voter Identity.”
Finally, North Carolina earned perfect scores under “Tabulation and Audits” for allowing public election observers, conducting tabulation audits with binding results, and using paper ballots and optical scanners in all jurisdictions. While that is good, the John Locke Foundation has stressed that the state can improve further by instituting election performance audits and requiring hand-marked paper ballots in every jurisdiction.
Getting North Carolina elections from good to great
There were only two policy areas in which the R Street report found North Carolina deficient.
The first was that North Carolina requires witness signatures on absentee ballot container envelopes in addition to requiring a voter ID number. The report states that a witness requirement is “an effective approach to verify identity, but creates an extra administrative burden for voters.”
This criticism misses key protections with the witness requirement, however. The witness requirement not only helps confirm that “it was the voter and no one else” who marked the ballot, but it also aids in investigations of alleged ballot harvesting. That added security is worth the minor burden of asking absentee voters to get witnesses for their ballot envelopes. North Carolina should get full credit for this policy.
The other deficiency, according to R Street, is that the State Board of Elections has neither joined a multistate data-sharing arrangement to help maintain clean voter rolls nor entered into bilateral agreements with neighboring states to do so. Those agreements help identify people who are on the voter rolls in multiple states, primarily people who have moved to a new state without canceling their voter registrations in their old states.
Voter roll list maintenance is important because it “ensures ineligible voters are not included on poll books, reduces the possibility for poll worker error and decreases opportunities for fraud.”
Data sharing is more effective when more states participate. The largest such arrangement is the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) with 27 member states and the District of Columbia. The John Locke Foundation supports joining ERIC if arrangements can be made to secure data privacy. There is also a new data-sharing arrangement available. EleXa, established by the Ohio Secretary of State, has 11 members.
The SBE could also enter into bilateral data-sharing agreements with other states. For example, Alabama has entered into 10 such agreements.
However the elections board does it, the SBE should enter into data-sharing agreements as long as they are compatible with data protection requirements.
Beyond R Street
The John Locke Foundation’s Policy Solutions details more of what the state can do to improve elections. They include tightening regulations on illegally transmitted ballots, providing greater freedom of speech for judges and judicial candidates, and instituting redistricting reform.
We know the way. Officials just need the will.
