Resources

In this paper, authors use a national survey of poll workers from the 2022 midterm election to analyze whether there are systematic differences between experienced and inexperienced poll workers in how they manage polling sites. They finds that experienced poll workers are more likely to say that their training prepared them for the election, yet their experience also correlates with more conflicts involving poll watchers and voters. This research fills a crucial gap in understanding how poll workers' experience influences Election Day operations.

The EAC Clearinghouse Resources in Poll Workers are designed to help election officials recruit, train, and retain temporary or seasonal election workers. Topics include fostering long-term commitment, adult learning, and managing challenging interactions, among others.

The EAC Learning Lab is the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s online, on-demand training platform for state and local election officials. Training modules, including poll worker modules, are free and focus on various election administration topics such as accessibility, communication, and voting systems, among others.

In this paper, authors invite the human factors and ergonomics community to engage with election administration research. The paper describes the complexity and scale of U.S. election administration and identifies open research challenges where human factors expertise is directly applicable, including accessible design, poll worker training, and error minimization.

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.

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.

This paper examines whether minority and Democratic-leaning voters in Florida receive lower poll worker staffing. Using data from multiple elections, authors find evidence of partisan disparities in staffing levels, with Democratic-trending counties receiving worse service relative to Republican-trending counties. They apply operations management methods to document systemic resource allocation inequities in polling place operations.

Hostetter examines whether the use of electronic poll books affects voter wait times, finding mixed results that depend on context, including photo ID requirements and precinct demographics.

This paper employs discrete-event simulation to model Milwaukee's in-person voting system during COVID-19. It reveals that poll worker shortages, social distancing measures, and PPE requirements can lead to very long voter wait times. The evaluation considers various design strategies to reduce pandemic-related effects, such as adding check-in locations, expanding early voting, and preventing the consolidation of polling sites.

This research analyzes registrants in Wisconsin who were identified as potential movers and did not respond to a subsequent postcard. At least 4% of these registrants cast a ballot at their address of registration, with minority registrants twice as likely as white registrants to do so.

In this paper, Jones and Stein test an expanded explanation for poll worker recruitment focused on reducing the demand for poll workers through efficiency gains. Based on the results of a national panel survey of election officials, authors find that in-person precinct voting on Election Day is a significant source of difficulty in obtaining poll workers. They offer widely available and political neutral strategies aimed at reducing poll worker scarcity.

Through interviews with 24 poll workers from the city of Chicago, Suttmann-Lea assesses how poll workers make decisions about voter eligibility under Illinois' signature matching law, finding that personal perspectives and experiences influence their evaluations. She also discusses how these poll workers stated they would proceed in the instance of a mismatch signature. These findings shed light on how poll worker interpretations of election law shape their application of the law.