Because Massachusetts does not provide online voter registration, early voting, pre-registration for high school students, or post-election audits of voting machines, the state received a grade of 70 percent by the PEW Charitable Trusts in a study measuring every state’s election performance index. This score was an 8 percent improvement from 2008.
“The state could further improve its overall performance by adding online voter registration. Not only would this raise the state’s score for the online registration indicator, but it also could have a positive impact on other metrics, including the voter registration rate and nonvoting due to registration and absentee ballot problems,” said the study.
These suggested reforms have been approved in the Mass. House and Senate, and it is expected that they will be signed this year.
