How hard is it to vote in your state?

The Cost-of-voting index

- Click here for it.

Oregon takes top honors for making it easy on voters in 2020—followed by Washington, Utah, Illinois and Maryland. Factors that help make voting convenient include online voter registration, early voting, mail-in voting, being able to register as late as Election Day and automatic voter registration of citizens who are eligible to vote.

“Notably, among the top states, Oregon, Utah and Washington all have permanent vote-by-mail processes,” Schraufnagel says. “Illinois is among the group of states that make absentee voting very easy, although it’s not the same as mail-in voting.”

On the flipside, Texas is the state with the most restrictive voting processes, followed by Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. Texas maintains an in-person voter registration deadline 30 days prior to Election Day, has reduced the number of polling stations in some parts of the state by more than 50 percent and has the most restrictive pre-registration law in the country, according to the analysis.

Other factors that make voters jump through more hoops in some states include strict voter ID laws, cumbersome absentee voting processes and a lack of early voting options.

- Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020.