This tool provides a training guide and customizable slide presentation to help election officials prepare poll workers to assist voters with disabilities in marking, verifying, and casting their ballots while preserving voter independence and privacy. It was published as NIST VTS 100-2.
Resources
Use our resource library to explore the latest research in the field of election science.
In this paper, authors draw upon the 2016 and 2020 Cooperative Election Study to analyze the likelihood that Trump supporters: (1) voted by mail, (2) self-reported voting by mail, and (3) self-reported not voting by mail when they did (misreporting VBM). In 2020, Trump supporters were markedly less likely to cast a VBM ballot and were also significantly more likely to disclaim voting by mail when they actually did.
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.
The Accessible Voting Machines Calculator is a simulation tool that helps election officials estimate how many accessible voting machines are needed to maintain reasonable voter wait times. Officials can enter information about thier voting process and voter population and run simulations to produce recommended resource allocations.
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.
Authors provide an overview of recent trends in election official turnover and provide an in-depth analysis of these trends in western U.S. states. They conclude the report with recommendations for building a resilient and stable election workforce. Recommendations focus in preventing and protecting election officials from threats and strategies for recruiting and retaining election officials, among others.
The survey included an expansive set of disability questions and validated voter turnout responses against state voter files. The analyses reveal a high disability incidence; large disability turnout gaps; and even greater gaps estimated with validated compared to reported turnout. Much smaller turnout gaps and better voting experiences are found in the states that conduct their elections with all-mail voting.
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.
This resource consists of a collection of EAC best practices, materials, and guidance to support election officials in delivering equal and accessible voting experiences, including resources on ADA-compliant equipment, accessible polling place design, and serving voters with disabilities.
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.
This resources features a guidance handbook for testing voting systems against the usability and accessibility requirements in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0. It supports election officials and testing labs in evaluating whether voting equipment meets federal usability standards.
This research's findings suggest that signature validation, which serves as a primary safeguard for mail voting integrity, may be systematically influenced by underlying biases