Vermont ranks No. 1 for elections management

MONTPELIER, Vt. (NEWS10) - Secretary of State Jim Condos announced Monday that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Election Data and Sciences Lab has released its post-2020 Elections Performance Index (EPI). Vermont was ranked first overall nationally in elections administration for the 2020 election, the second time the state has achieved the top spot.

The EPI provides a measure of how well each state is performing in managing the conduct of elections, using a number of indicators from voter turnout to online tools for voter accessibility. It is widely considered the most reputable elections management index.

"I’m very proud of the hard work our office and specifically our Elections Division team have done to achieve a 1st overall ranking in the EPI,” said Secretary of State Jim Condos. “This ranking means that across numerous measures we have increased accessibility, and decreased roadblocks, for Vermont voters, while ensuring that our elections process is functioning effectively as the bedrock of our democracy.”

This marks the second time Vermont has locked in a first-place finish, in two consecutive election years. Since the 2012 ranking, the state has gone from 38th nationally, to 16th in 2014, and to a first-place score in 2016. In the 2018 midterm ranking, Vermont maintained a top-five finish in third place, and the state has now retaken number one.

Vermont is the first state in the history of the EPI to achieve about a 90% grade across all categories for a Presidential election year. Condos said the state's focus has been making their elections systems as accessible as possible for Vermont voters. “Our number one overall ranking and performance increase show that we’re on the right path, and we will keep working daily to innovate and improve," he concluded.