By Jon King, Michigan Advance
Michigan is among the best in the nation when it comes to the administration of elections.
That’s according to the Elections Performance Index (EPI), which ranked Michigan at second in the nation when comparing election administration policy and performance from one federal election cycle to the next. Released on Friday by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, the report scored Michigan at 88% on the EPI, second only to New Mexico, which also scored 88%. Rounding out the top five were Colorado (87%), Vermont (87%) and Nebraska (87%).
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson noted the improvement the state had seen since 2018.
“When I first took office, Michigan’s elections were ranked 31st in the nation, today we are No. 2,” said Benson. “We’ve reached this incredible achievement thanks to the outstanding work of Michigan’s clerks and poll workers, who administer safe, secure, and accurate elections. I’m grateful to the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, for its data-driven work to improve elections across the country. We won’t rest until Michigan is ranked No. 1.”
The EPI also noted Michigan’s voter turnout at 59.3%, a double digit improvement over the 47.5% national average. Additionally, the state’s 91.3% voter registration rate was also well above the national average of 84.4%.
Two areas in which Michigan did worse than the national averages were in rejected mail ballots and disability access. Overall, .5% of the state’s mail and absentee ballots were rejected in 2022, measured as a percentage of all votes cast. That is above the national average of .4%. Meanwhile, the degree to which Michigan voters were deterred from voting because of disability or illness was also above the national average.
First launched in 2013, the EPI tracks data as far back as 2008 to provide a nonpartisan, data-focused assessment of how election policy and administration operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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