Resources

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

58 Resources

States United2025
Voter Trust Reports

The report finds people who expressed higher levels of confidence that their vote would be counted as intended were more likely to vote. This pattern was consistent across partisan groups and most prominent among independents; If Americans felt more confident about the security of the 2024 election, turnout could have increased by 3.0-3.7 percentage points; If all Americans felt the highest levels of confidence going into November 2024, as many as 4.7-5.7 million more voters may have cast a ballot.

Lisa Schur, Whitney Quesenbery Michelle Bishop, Misty Crooks, Mason Ameri, Douglas KruseCenter for Civic Design2025
Usability & Accessibility Reports

In this report, authors analyze evidence on voting difficulties, potential solutions, and ideas for a new center - the Center on Disability and Voting - from data using surveys, focus groups, and interviews with key stakeholders.

Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon LaskowskiNational Institute of Standards2025
Usability & Accessibility Reports

This report explores the legibility and readability of summary ballots printed by ballot marking devices and the ability of optical character recognition (OCR) applications commonly to voice (read) summary ballots. The report identifies typographic elements that might make it easier to read a ballot visually, the feasibility of using OCR to allow blind or low vision voters to hear their ballot read accurately, and whether there is a relationship between the design elements that support both visual and OCR-assisted reading.

Voter Trust Workforce Reports

This Brennan Center survey reports on local election officials’ experiences with security, threats, funding, staffing, and preparation for the 2024 election environment. It is relevant because trusted, timely, and nonpartisan communication is one of the main tools election officials and civic groups use to counter distrust. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

Lisa Schur, Douglas KruseRutgers University2024
Usability & Accessibility Reports

This report summarizes projections of how many people with disabilities would be eligible to vote in the November 2024 elections, using data from the Census Bureau’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey combined with Census Bureau population projections for 2024. The report breaks down key demographic characteristics of eligible voters with disabilities.

Whitney Quesenbery, Suzanne Chapman, Christopher Patten, Roberto SpreggiaroNational Institute of Standards2024
Usability & Accessibility Reports

This review of the literature was done for research to understand how voters approach the task of marking, reviewing, verifying, and casting a ballot. It includes not only research on voting systems and voting, but on related issues of trust, privacy, and mental models. This report is a companion to the research report NIST GCR 24-051 How Voters Review and Verify Ballots.

Marek N. Posard, Todd C. Helmus, Michelle Woods, Bilva ChandraRAND Corporation2024
Voter Trust Reports

This RAND resource addresses technology, misinformation, political violence, or public communication risks that could affect trust in the 2024 election environment. It is relevant because confidence depends not only on actual system security but also on whether voters understand the safeguards protecting registration, voting, and counting. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

Suzanne Chapman, Lynn Baumeister, Whitney QuesenberyNational Institute of Standards2024
Usability & Accessibility Reports

This report describes qualitative research conducted to gain deeper insights about how voters mark, review, verify, and cast their ballots. It is part of the work to update the human factors—accessibility, usability, and voter privacy—requirements in federal voting system standards and fill gaps in our understanding of how voters interact with ballot marking devices.

Charles Stewart IIIMIT Election Data + Science Lab2024
Voter Trust Reports

This post-election survey reports on how Americans cast ballots in 2024 and how confident they were that votes were counted accurately.

Usability & Accessibility Reports

This report and the guidelines contained therein explain how a successful accessible RCV ballot works for voters with disabilities. The goal of this work was to create a universal design for a Ranked Choice Voting ballot that would work for the most voters without special settings needed.

MIT Election Data + Science Lab2023
Voter Trust Reports

This bibliography curates research on voter trust, voter confidence, election legitimacy, misinformation, and election administration.

Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon J. LaskowskiNational Institute of Standards2023
Usability & Accessibility Reports

This document provides guidance and resources for how to test voting systems against the usability and accessibility requirements in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0. The primary audiences for this guide are the voting system test laboratory organizations who perform certification testing.