On July 7, the Center for American Progress issued a report and launched a website evaluating state-level democratic performance.

The report, titled “The Health of State Democracies,” analyzes essential factors of a state democracy, including voting laws, redistricting, and campaign finance. The report focuses on 22 of these factors and delineates them into three categories: accessibility of the ballot, representation in state government, and influence in the political system.

The report ranks and grades each state within the three categories by evaluating all 50 states and the District of Columbia along the 22 factors. The analysis discovered that the healthiest state democracy is Maine, whereas the weakest state democracy is Alabama. Pennsylvania ranks 43 out of 51, with an “F” in accessibility of the ballot, a “C” in representation in state government, and an “F” in influence in the political system. Pennsylvania is among the lowest performing states for numerous factors with its lack of online voter registration, portable voter registration, and no-fault absentee voting.

To improve each state’s democratic performance, the Center for American Progress made a series of policy recommendations. These recommendations include, but are not limited to, providing online and same-day voter registration, expanding in-person early voting, and setting appropriate campaign contribution limits.

This report sheds light on the problems the Public Interest Law Center passionately works to improve. Many of our successful past cases, including the voter ID case and Chester County’s voting access case, are the foundations of our continued work to better the state’s democracy.

Click here to read about our current voting advocacy work.