Resources

Use our resource library to explore the latest research in the field of election science.

33 Resources

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, Center for Tech and Civic Life2026
Workforce Tools

This resource contains powerpoint templates for creating bite-sized checklists for election day tasks. The checklists can be printed so that poll workers can carry the checklists as they move around the polling place.

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, Center for Tech and Civic Life2026
Workforce Tools

This resource, published by the U.S. Alliance for Elections Excellence in collaboration with the Center for Civic Design and the Elections Group, provides workbooks and templates for election officials to revise or build poll worker manuals from scratch. This toolkit is for anyone writing or updating their jurisdiction’s poll worker manuals.

Workforce Tools

This page contains materials created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to support election officials in recruiting, training and retaining poll workers. It contains powerpoint templates, customizable graphics, social media templates, and sample press releases for recruiting poll workers as well as links to EAC publications on the topic such as as the 2026 report "Election Worker Recruitment, Training, Retention, and Evaluation."

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, Center for Tech and Civic Life2026
Workforce Tools

This resource provides an online application template that election officials can use for recruiting prospective poll workers and gathering their information and qualifications. It allows election administrators to effectively manage and track poll worker data, including availability, skills, and training.

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, Center for Tech and Civic Life2026
Workforce Tools

This toolkit contains templates and guidance for election officials to create visual inventories of the supplies needed at stations. This resource is designed to support poll workers by helping them easily identify, find, and organize supplies when setting up a polling place.

Paul Gronke, Paul Manson2025
Workforce Academic Papers

In this paper, authors utilize "policyscape" and "policy drift" as lens to conceptualize stability and change in election administration. More specifically, policy drift helps to explain a disconnect between the current service expectations from these offices and existing models of staffing and workforce development. These conclusions were reached through interviews with local election officials in Oregon.

Kathleen Hale, Mitchell BrownAuburn University2024
Workforce Academic Papers

Administering Elections provides a digest of contemporary American election administration using a systems perspective. The authors provide insight into the interconnected nature of all components of elections administration, and sheds light on the potential consequences of reforms that fail to account for this.

Michael GreenbergerUniversity of Maryland2024
Workforce Academic Papers

In this paper, Michael Greenberger examines the effect of poll worker recruitment policies, local demographics and political characteristics on poll worker recruitment, finding that less restrictive poll worker requirements can ease recruitment efforts. However, underlying demographics and income levels also help identify where recruitment may be difficult. He claims that the U.S. Election Assistance Commissions report on poll worker recruitment is incomplete, particularly for states formerly covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Paul Gronke, Paul Manson, Natalie Adona, Jay Lee2024
Workforce Academic Papers

This paper examines the demographic characteristics and professional profiles of election officials in the U.S. They find that, even amidst disruptions in politics and elections, the "typical" local election official remains the same: mid-50s white females earning just under $50,000 a year. They then explore potential reasons for the heavily female makeup of the elections workforce.

Anita Manion, Joseph Anthony, David Kimball, Adriano Udani, Paul Gronke2023
Workforce Academic Papers

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.

Joshua Ferrer, Igor Geyn, Daniel M. ThompsonUniversity of California, Los Angeles2023
Workforce Academic Papers

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.

Alistair Clark, Toby S James2023
Workforce Academic Papers

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.