Decomposing the Costs of Voting: Voter Registration and Ballot-Casting Costs in the American States

Abstract

Voting in the United States involves two steps: registering to vote and then casting a ballot. At the same time, the US states differ greatly in what policies govern their registration and voting processes. However, election scholars lack comprehensive and comparable measures of the distinct costs of voter registration and ballot casting, limiting our understanding of the relative difficulty of each step of the voting process, their causes, and their consequences. To alleviate this issue, we decompose the Cost of Voting Index into measures of registration and ballot-casting costs, separately. In doing so, we (1) demonstrate the multidimensionality of the COVI, (2) create a four-category typology of state-level election access ecosystems, and (3) demonstrate the value of these measures through brief examinations of frequently studied research questions. By disentangling registration and ballot-casting policies, this approach distinguishes each policy arena, allowing scholars to examine key theoretical debates about where institutional barriers matter most. These scores can be applied to a variety of research questions, including voter turnout, citizen confidence in elections, and beyond.