What were the top 5 states with the most secure voting systems in the 2024 election?
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Executive Summary
The available sources do not produce a definitive, contemporaneous list of the “top 5 states with the most secure voting systems in the 2024 election.” Most direct rankings referenced in the materials are from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab’s Elections Performance Index (EPI) for 2022, which identified New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado, Vermont, and Nebraska as top performers; other sources emphasize nationwide security improvements and paper-ballot prevalence but do not provide a state-by-state 2024 top-five list [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. Why the obvious answer is missing — reporters and analysts couldn’t find a 2024 top-five list
The supplied policy and survey sources do not claim to rank states’ 2024 security performance directly; rather, they address broader issues like electoral integrity trends and voter experience. The Global Electoral Integrity Report and a national voter experience survey focus on principles and outcomes, not a clear, numerically ranked 2024 state security leaderboard, which leaves a gap if one wants a definitive top-five list for that single election cycle [7] [8]. This means relying on the most recent EPI results—namely 2022—or on qualitative appraisals from security officials and reporting to approximate which states performed best by 2024 standards [9] [6].
2. The strongest numerical signal we have comes from MIT’s Elections Performance Index (EPI) — but it’s from 2022
MIT’s EPI shows New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado, Vermont, and Nebraska scoring in the high 80s as the top performers in the 2022 index, with New Mexico and Michigan highlighted in subsequent state and news coverage for reforms and administration quality [1] [2] [3]. The EPI measures administration, integrity, and performance across multiple years, so it is useful context for 2024 discussions; however, EPI 2022 is not a direct measure of 2024 election-day security incidents or new reforms implemented since 2022, creating uncertainty about whether the same five would hold the same positions in 2024 [1] [2].
3. What security experts and federal officials said during and after 2024 — confidence but not a state ranking
Federal officials and analysts publicly asserted that the U.S. election infrastructure was more secure than in previous cycles, noting a broad shift toward paper records, improved cyber defenses, and updated procedures. CISA leadership and news analyses emphasized that nearly all votes were cast with paper records and that most counties used hand-marked or ballot-marking devices, which improves auditability and confidence, but these sources provide nationwide assessments, not state-by-state top-five lists for 2024 [4] [5] [6]. These statements add credibility to claims of widespread improvements while leaving the specific “top five” unanswered.
4. Where the MIT top-five claims come from and why they matter for 2024 context
State-level success stories cited in the materials attribute improvement to reforms such as paper-ballot requirements, uniform procedures, automatic and same-day registration, and bipartisan administration practices—factors that underlie MIT’s EPI scoring where New Mexico and Colorado are often cited as models [2] [3]. These structural features increase resilience and auditability and explain why those states scored highly in 2022; they also serve as reasonable indicators for 2024 readiness, even if they do not prove those states were definitively the top five in 2024 election security incidents or public confidence [1] [3].
5. Contradictions, caveats, and omitted considerations you should know
The principal caveat is that no single source in the provided set offers a definitive 2024 top-five ranking, and the EPI’s 2022 snapshot can only be a proxy. The national reports highlight improvements and foreign threat monitoring after 2024 voting but do not correlate those assessments to updated state rankings [9] [6]. Additionally, differences in metrics—administrative capacity versus post-election incident counts versus voter confidence—mean “most secure” can be framed in multiple ways, so any top-five claim must specify whether it’s about auditability, absence of incidents, administrative performance, or another metric [7] [4].
6. Bottom line and recommended next steps for a definitive answer
Based on the available evidence, the best-supported claim is that New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado, Vermont, and Nebraska were top performers in the MIT EPI and are reasonable candidates for “most secure” in the absence of a specific 2024 ranking, but this is an inference rather than a direct 2024 finding [1] [2] [3]. To produce a definitive 2024 top-five list, consult a post‑2024 EPI update or a comprehensive, state-level post‑election security assessment—neither of which appears in the provided materials—while cross-checking CISA, state election offices, and independent audits for incident reports and audit results [4] [8].