Resources

This report details how American voters experienced the 2022 midterm election, based on a survey of 10,200 registered voters (including 200 from each state and D.C.), administered by YouGov. Key findings on in-person voting show mail ballot usage declined to 32%, down from 43% in 2020, while Election Day in-person voting increased to 50%. Most voters had short wait times, but racial disparities persisted. Disruptions at polling places were rare but measurable. Voter confidence varied significantly by party, with Republicans showing much lower confidence than Democrats. This is the only SPAE report on a midterm election cycle since 2014, enabling direct comparisons between presidential and midterm voting experiences.

This report provides a comprehensive review of the existing literature on in-person voting to determine best practices and identify areas where more research is needed, covering both operational features and the voter experience.

In this paper, authors develop an algorithm that can reduce racial disparities in polling place access by suggesting improved placements for polling places from a list of identified public locations at the state level.

In this report, Stewart documents persistent racial and ethnic gaps in the in-person voting experience, including longer wait times and lower confidence among Black, Latino, and Asian American voters compared with white voters.

This paper present a case study examining the implementation of Election Day vote centers, finding that successful adoption requires coordination across multiple elements of the election ecosystem.

The 2023 Local Election Official Survey provides insight into the challenges and successes facing election administrators, including the impacts of misinformation on job satisfaction, high turnover and rising workloads. It also analyzes demographic characteristics of election officials and the voter education methods they use.

The 2023 Local Election Official Survey explored the views and opinions of 852 local election officials, finding that a high number of officials were administering their first-election in 2020. Election officials also expressed facing threats and harassment, growing concerns of political interference in elections, and the need for more resources to meet administration and security needs.

This study aims to understand poll worker incentives and motivations. Authors analyze original data from a 2015 survey of poll workers during the 2015 British general election. They found that a range of relationships exist between individuals' decision to serve as a poll worker and various incentives, as well as poll workers' socio-economic, social capital, and satisfaction profiles.

The 2023 State-by-State Compendium cites statutory requirements for serving as a poll worker in each state, including voter registration qualifications, age, residency, political affiliation, term requirements, compensation, and training, among others.

This report summarizes existing academic literature related to election official and poll worker recruitment, training, and retention. Authors discuss the demographic characteristics of the elections workforce, methods of selection, training programs and barriers to retaining elections workers.

This research studies whether characteristics such as election results, turnout, and policies in similar sized counties differ based on the political affiliation of directly elected local election officials. Authors find that regardless of political affiliation, local election officials are more likely to agree on election policies across parties than the general public and that these officials generally do not use their positions to advantage their party.

In this paper, authors examine whether the main predictors of election administration opinions, particularly partisanship and jurisdiction size, are similar for LEOs and the public. They analyze results from two national surveys with identically worded questions administered to both groups, finding that these groups diverge on the topic of election integrity but share similar opinions on election security and reform proposals.