This work presents the response characteristics of a ZnO varistor to conductive EMP. An E1 pulse, standardized to MIL-STD-188-125-1, was applied to the varistors wherein the residual current and response times were measured with the applied E1 pulse current. Additionally, the response time was measured according to the length of the connection path. Consequently, the amplitude of the residual voltage through the ZnO varistors was increased with increasing amplitude of the applied E1 pulse current. As the length of the connection path increased, the operating response time and residual peak voltage also increased. These results indicate that the response characteristics of ZnO varistors can be applied to basic data to support the use of varistors as a protective measure against conductive EMP.