Ed Bross of Brookfield fills in his ballot during the spring election last week at the Brookfield Safety Building. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Madison — States improved how they run elections between 2008 and 2012, and Wisconsin continued to stay at the top, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The report measures states on 17 criteria, such as voter turnout, voter registration policies, average wait times and the handling of military ballots. By tracking states over time, the group says it can give people an accurate picture of how officials are running elections so they don't have to make judgments on disparate anecdotes.

Pew's online version of the report includes interactive elements allowing the public to compare states overall or on particular criteria.

The report steers away from some hot-button topics, such as voter ID requirements and trimming early voting hours.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers approved a voter ID law in 2011, but it has been blocked by the courts; this spring, they put new curbs on early voting.

In all, the report found 40 states and the District of Columbia improved their scores under Pew's criteria between 2008 and 2012.

Wisconsin came in third place in 2012 for its election performance, behind North Dakota and Minnesota. Four years earlier, the Dairy State came in second.

This time, Wisconsin had an overall ranking of 79%, a dip below its 80% ranking in the last presidential election.

Mississippi came in last place in 2008 and 2012, with a ranking of 44% in the latest report.

Kevin Kennedy, director of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, said he was pleased Wisconsin has performed well and said the report will help officials here improve. The board runs the state's elections.

Wisconsin did well on most indicators, such as one that tracks what kind of information voters can access online. Wisconsin's voting website tells voters where their polling places are and what will be on their ballots in upcoming elections.

"When you keep the focus on the voter, you're naturally going to gravitate toward things that are going to play well" on reports like the one issued by Pew, Kennedy said in an interview.

Pew researchers said North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin may have done so well in part because of their voter registration policies.

North Dakota does not require voters to register, and Wisconsin and Minnesota allow registration on election day. That practice has been controversial in Wisconsin, with some Republican lawmakers pushing for ending election-day registration.

Pew's report said research shows such registration policies help boost voter turnout and reduce the use of provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are cast in instances when a voter's credentials are questioned and are counted only if the voter proves soon after the election that he or she was eligible to vote.

In 2012, Wisconsin ranked in second place for voter turnout, just behind Minnesota. Both states had turnouts of well over 70%.

Turnout dropped nationally between 2008 and 2012, but fewer people around the country said they were deterred from voting because of illness or disability in the latest presidential election.

Wisconsin performed near the bottom in this area, with nearly 22% of those who did not vote in 2012 saying they did not do so because of an illness or disability they or a family member had. For all states, fewer than 16% of nonvoters gave that reason on average in 2012.

Online registration backed

The report spoke positively of online voter registration, saying that practice can make voter rolls more accurate and save taxpayer money.

Thirteen states had online voter registration in 2012, up from two states four years earlier. Last week, Nebraska became the 20th state to allow the practice.

The Wisconsin Assembly approved a bill last year that would have allowed online voter registration, but the state Senate did not take it up.

Kennedy, of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, said he sees moving to online voter registration as important. Using it would make sure registrations include more accurate information, reduce the frequency with which election clerks have to try to decipher handwritten forms, curtail on-the-street voter registration drives that are sometimes controversial, and curb the number of election day registrations.

Wisconsin's average wait time for voting was 8.2 minutes in 2012, ranking it 19th in that category. Florida had the longest wait time in 2012 — 45 minutes, a more than 16-minute increase compared with 2008.

Washington and Oregon conduct all voting by mail, so there was no wait time in those states. At two minutes, Vermont had the shortest wait time in 2012 for the states that conduct traditional voting.

Twitter: twitter.com/patrickdmarley

Pew report: www.pewstates.org/epi-interactive