Resources

This resources provides a step-by-step protocol for test voting system usability and accessibility functions in use, including how well the ballot presents voters with options and allows them to confirm their choices while marking and verify their ballot before casting. This resources is intended for state certification programs and election offices evaluating a new voting system.

In this video, Thad Kousser explores the MIT Election Data + Science white paper about communicating with voters to build trust in elections.

This panel explores a new set of conservative principles to build trust in elections.

In this video Paul Gronke, Director of the Elections and Voting Information Center, outlines the results of the 2023 white paper "An Overview: Vote By Mail in the United States." This paper documents the emergence and growth of mail balloting and details the unique administrative arrangements associated with this method of voting, related research and best practices, and areas where there is still more to learn.

The SMILE series are instructional videos, based on over 8,000 simulations, that help election officials visualize cost-effective resource allocations for polling locations that keep wait times under 30 minutes. The series covers polling place consolidation, new equipment integration, and allocation of accessible voting technology.

Using this tool, NCSL tracks and classifies voter ID laws across all 50 states along two dimensions: whether they require voters to present an ID and whether the requirement is strict or non-strict.

The Voting Location Resource Calculator is an interactive simulation tool that helps election officials estimate voter wait times and identify potential bottlenecks in the voting process. Officials can enter data on existing voting locations, including steps required to vote, layout, and equipment, to simulate current conditions or test changes to resources and processes. Based on observational data from U.S. elections from 2018 to 2024.

This guide takes a comprehensive look at ballot processing, tracing ballots from intake to tally and archiving, providing election officials with process descriptions, tracking forms, supply lists, and work roles. Election officials can edit this guide to match unique local/state needs and can use the guide to support staff trainings or helping observers understand what they’re watching.

This toolkit helps election officials design and produce the materials poll workers need to set up and operate a polling place or vote center, including layout diagrams, signage, and procedural materials. It covers both traditional polling places and vote center models.

This tool helps election officials understand how long it will take for lines to dissipate after predictable early-morning or late-day surges of voters at polling places. Calculates projected line lengths and wait times during these surge periods to support staffing and resource planning.

This tool provides eight key questions election officials should consider when designing or reviewing a ballot. These questions focus on layout, instructions, typography, and formatting to help minimize voter errors and undervoting.

This tool helps election officials determine the capacity of a modified polling place system under various social distancing measures and identify where process bottlenecks may have shifted in response to those changes.