Resources

The Hand Count Workload Calculator is a simulation tool that helps election officials estimate the resources needed to conduct a hand count of ballots, whether for initial tabulation, an audit, or a recount. Officials can determine how many counting teams are needed to meet a deadline or how long a count will take with a fixed staff. Default timing data is based on observational data from a Northeastern state in November 2024.

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.

This resource, published by the U.S. Alliance for Elections Excellence in collaboration with the Center for Civic Design and the Elections Group, provides workbooks and templates for election officials to revise or build poll worker manuals from scratch. This toolkit is for anyone writing or updating their jurisdiction’s poll worker manuals.

This structured testing protocol can help identify e-pollbook usability problems before Election Day, using mock-election scenarios with poll workers. Helps election officials evaluate existing systems and make informed procurement decisions.

This resource, published by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, provides election officials with practical ways to improve poll worker retention.

This publicly available interactive tool (currently in beta) allows election officials to map the layout and setup of voting equipment at an in-person polling location. Users can generate a custom, to-scale model of their space, incorporate key elements such as electrical outlets, doors, and windows, or select from common layout designs. Designs can be printed and shared with polling location leads to facilitate setup.

The biennial comprehensive survey of election administration across all 50 states, five territories, and D.C., covering the 2024 presidential general election, achieved a 100% response rate. Key in-person voting findings include: more than 70% of voters cast ballots in person, split roughly evenly between Election Day and early in-person voting; mail ballot use declined to approximately 30%, down from 43% in 2020; more than 770,000 individuals served as poll workers; all states reported offering some form of in-person voting before Election Day; and ballot drop box use increased by nearly 10 percentage points from 2022 to 2024 in states that offered them. Two-thirds of voters cast ballots in person, reflecting a significant post-pandemic return to in-person voting. The survey also covers voter registration, UOCAVA voting, absentee voting, provisional balloting, and voting technology.

The 2025 Local Election Official Survey gathered insight on the views of 858 local election officials related to federal cuts to election security services, resource constraints, worries of political interference, experiences of threats and harassment, and the use of artificial intelligence in elections.

This toolkit provides signage guidelines and ready-to-use templates designed for election offices of any size. They include directional signs, accessibility notices, and voter instruction materials for both inside and outside the polling location.

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.

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.

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.