Resources

Hale and Brown examine the local networks of election officials throughout the U.S. and the information exchanged between them. They demonstrate the ways in which local networks are central to innovation, key to the spread of new ideas from one locality to another, and fundamental to improving this area of public service across the country.

In this paper, authors review the evidence on voter turnout and voting difficulties among people with disabilities finding that nearly one-third of these voters who voted in a polling place in 2012 experienced difficulties in doing so. They summarize best practices for removing voting obstacles and underscore the need for such practices given the expected growth of the disability population.

This paper explores the use of absentee and early voting in U.S. elections. Authors state that absentee voting is often marginally more convenient and might be less expensive to administer, but it also carries unique costs in terms of ballot insecurity, higher odds of error and fraud, and a concomitant reduction in public confidence. They assert that states intent on making the act of voting easier should prefer in-person early voting to absentee voting, while continuing to focus on improving the experience of Election Day voting.

In 2014, the Virginia General Assembly established a working group to provide instructions, procedures, services, a security assessment, and security measures for the secure return by electronic means of voted absentee military- overseas ballots from uniformed-service voters outside of the United States. This report details the finding and work of the working group's first convening in 2015.

This report provides guidance for local election officials on how to collect and use data to manage polling place resources more effectively, including diagnosing congestion and allocating voting machines and poll workers.

This paper analyzes the quantity and quality of poll workers, highlighting that performance, rather than numbers alone, is a key factor in voter satisfaction and the efficient conduct of elections.

This paper reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of long wait times at polling places, and discusses policy interventions that have been shown to reduce lines and improve the voter experience.

Authors analyze of voter turnout the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, finding that Election Day registration has a consistently positive effect on turnout, whereas early voting is associated with lower turnout when it is implemented by itself.

This paper discusses the challenges faced by voters with disabilities when attempting to vote, both in-person at polling locations and at home via mail ballot. They underscore the importance of addressing these barriers given the growing disability population and prevalence of long-term barriers to ballot access.

This brief provides a summary of the survey's major findings in five areas—cost, implementation, voter convenience, system management, and online security—and then examines ways in which these states would like to improve online voter registration.

The analysis found that insufficient data exist to determine whether citizens are successfully and regularly offered these voter registration opportunities.

This paper examines how disability relates to attitudes towards politics. Authors find that people with disabilities remain less likely to vote than nondisdabled people and that people with disabilities favor a greater government role in employment and healthcare, and give lower ratings on government responsiveness and trustworthiness.