Resources

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

170 Resources

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."

In-Person Voting Tools

The Center for Civic Design provides this toolkit for election officials to create educational materials about Election Day and post-election processes, adaptable to any jurisdiction. It helps election offices communicate clearly with voters and poll workers about what happens on and after Election Day.

In-Person Voting Tools

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.

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.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Engineering for Democracy Institute2025
In-Person Voting Trainings

This is a publicly available training module that helps election jurisdictions build data skills through hands-on R exercises. The program shows election offices how to transform operational data into actionable decisions, such as improving staffing, resource allocation, and the overall voting experience.

Charles Stewart IIIMIT Election Data + Science Lab2025
In-Person Voting Reports

This report details how American voters experienced the 2024 general election. It is based on a survey of 10,200 registered voters, including 200 from each state plus D.C. Key findings from in-person voting include: over 70% of voters voted in person; mail-in voting decreased to 29% from 43% in 2020; wait times for voting were mostly short, but some disparities remained; and public schools saw a decline as polling locations, with community centers becoming the most common alternative.

Anita Manion, Lisa A. Bryant, David Kimball, Gretchen Macht, Mindy Romero, Robert M. Stein2025
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

This paper synthesizes best practices for in-person voting across polling place access, check-in and wait times, polling place layout and design, ballot design, and the voter experience.

In-Person Voting Reports

This report provides a comprehensive update to the EAC's landmark poll worker reports from 2007 and 2016, based on current data across four key areas: recruitment, training, retention, and evaluation. It captures the significantly transformed landscape of poll worker management since 2020, addressing new challenges like workforce shortages, threats against election workers, and the adoption of emerging technologies. The report also highlights state-by-state practices and emerging best practices from jurisdictions nationwide.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Engineering for Democracy Institute2025
In-Person Voting Tools

This publicly available tool allows election offices to enter the quantities of equipment, materials, and archives they have and receive an estimate of the warehouse space required to store in-person voting materials.

Gianna M. WadowskiUniversity of Rhode Island2025
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

In this MS thesis, the author investigates how voting equipment type (paper ballots, optical scan, and ballot marking devices) affects voting process performance across three elections at three locations. They use observational time studies and discrete-event simulation to model how different voting systems affect voter wait times, throughput, and overall process efficiency. The author find that performance improvements from adopting newer voting technologies are inconsistent across election contexts.

Workforce Videos

This video highlights three areas of emerging research that can strengthen trust, communication, and professional practice in election administration. Presenters also highlight results of their recent survey examining election official needs related to ethics training and support. They also explore a new training model for local election officials.