Resources

In this paper, authors explore the demographic and professional profiles of local election officials (LEOs), finding that most are female, white, over 55, and earning just over $50,000 a year. They also found that women were more likely to be paid less than their male counterparts. The paper presents additional findings related to job satisfaction and the role of election administration in facilitating female leadership.

This paper examines factors contributing to wait times during the 2016 presidential election across multiple counties, finding that inadequate resources and staffing are key drivers of long lines.

This tool helps election officials understand how long it will take for lines to dissipate after predictable early-morning or late-day surges of voters at polling places. Calculates projected line lengths and wait times during these surge periods to support staffing and resource planning.

This resource provides strategies for election officials for recruiting and retaining election workers. It features direct examples from local jurisdicitions that have had success implementing these strategies.

This tool helps election officials determine the capacity of a modified polling place system under various social distancing measures and identify where process bottlenecks may have shifted in response to those changes.

This paper proposes a two-part framework for evaluating ballot-marking device verification, finding that while most voters can detect errors when they check their ballot, most do not check their ballot in the first place.

In this paper, Cantoni Indicates that extending the distance to a polling place by a quarter mile decreases voter turnout by one to three percentage points, with a greater impact observed in areas with higher proportions of non-white voters.

In this paper, authors generate voter wait-time estimates using an indifference-zone generalized binary search method to optimize and determine resource allocation, such as electronic poll books and voting machines, to reduce wait times.

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.

Hostetter argues that portable poll worker registration—permitting registered voters to work statewide in any election precinct—increases the ease of filling poll worker positions. She uses the 2008-2018 Election Administration and Voting Survey to test her hypothesis. She finds support for her hypothesis, suggesting that potential benefits would arise from allowing citizens to work in any precinct.

This resource is a curated hub of tools developed by university researchers and the civic tech community to help election officials manage in-person polling place operations, including resource allocation, queue management, capacity planning with social distancing, and poll worker management.

In this paper, authors find that strict voter ID laws impose a disproportionate burden on minority voters and have significant negative effects on turnout among racial and ethnic minority groups.