Leadership Now Project

Democracy Report Card

The Leadership Now Project Democracy Report Card helps business leaders make informed decisions about engaging in state-level politics and democracy reform. Each state receives a letter grade based on democratic performance across voting, electoral systems, and campaign finance.

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Overall Grade by State

Grade fill shows each state's overall democracy grade. Elevated election interference risk can be layered on as a focused overlay.

NE Inset

Democracy Index Grade

ABCD

Elevated Risk Outline

Some or high Bloomberg Election Risk Index

Detailed Scores by State

Sort by state, grade, risk, or numeric score. Numeric scores are shown when visible in the current public ranking graphic.

Accessible state list with grade, election interference risk, and numeric score when available.
73%
84%
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70%
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86%
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84%
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64%
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73%
71%
91%
87%
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86%
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72%
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85%
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70%
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85%
64%
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67%
70%
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90%
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90%
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Every state has meaningful room to improve its democracy laws and election systems.

  2. 2

    The strongest reforms tend to compound: improvements in one category can support stronger performance elsewhere.

  3. 3

    Democracy performance challenges cut across partisan lines, so the report card is designed as a state-by-state reform tool.

The Details

How Scores Are Determined

States are graded across voting, electoral systems, and campaign finance, with each category contributing evenly to the overall grade.

Metrics inside each category are ranked across states, then translated into category grades and the overall report-card result.

Bloomberg Election Risk Index data is used as a separate risk signal for potential election interference or subversion.

Sources and Metrics

What Each Category Measures

Voting

Measures how accessible and participatory the voting experience is for citizens.

Metrics

  • Average turnout
  • Average registration
  • Share of races contested
  • Turnout gaps by race
  • Voting wait time

Sources

  • MIT Elections Performance Index
  • OpenSecrets
  • U.S. Census data
Electoral Systems

Measures how fairly and productively elections are administered.

Metrics

  • Efficiency gap gerrymandering
  • Disenfranchised voters
  • Automatic voter registration
  • Mail voting access

Sources

  • 538
  • The Sentencing Project
  • National Conference of State Legislatures
  • Ballotpedia
Campaign Finance

Measures whether campaign funding rules are transparent, accessible, and accountable.

Metrics

  • Independent spending reporting
  • Contribution limits
  • Online campaign finance records
  • Dark money spend

Sources

  • Coalition for Integrity
  • National Conference of State Legislatures
  • OpenSecrets

Actions You Can Take with This Data

1

Publish op-eds or public statements in states where reform is most needed.

2

Evaluate investments in local civic organizations and pro-democracy candidates.

3

Engage candidates and elected officials on common-sense election reforms.

4

Use report-card performance as one input when making business investment, expansion, or relocation decisions.