Resources

Creek and Karnes provide one of only a handful of analyses focusing on rural election administration. Their 2010 paper examines the challenges and costs of implementing HAVA requirements in rural jurisdictions, and whether state support can help equalize the costs of implementing these requirements in rural versus urban jurisdictions.

This report highlights key trends in voter turnout among voters with disabilities in the 2008 elections. Authors find that turnout by voters with disabilities was 3 percentage points lower than voters without disabilities. Authors analyze this trends by state, age, vote method, and employment, among others.

This paper examines the role of poll worker characteristics, experience and training to explain variations in 'residual vote rates' throughout California. Authors find that a young and experience poll worker workforce, hands-on training and take-home references, alongside other factors help reduce errors. These findings bear important implications for poll worker recruitment and training, among other things.

This paper analyzes postregistration costs and state policies that can make it easier for registered citizens to vote. Authors find that mailing each registrant a sample ballot and information about the location of their polling place, and providing a longer voting day enhance turnout, especially by the young and the less educated.

In this paper, Berinsky examines electoral reforms design to make it easier for registered voters to cast their ballot. He finds that these reforms increase socioeconomic biases in the composition of the voting public and recommends using political engagement strategies to improve ballot access, rather than institutional changes.

Stein's article "Early Voting" provides a foundational analysis of who votes early, how early voters behave in contrast to election-day voters, and whether their ballot choices differ. The article discusses findings related to attitudinal and demographic differences between early and election-day voters, and partisan advantage, among others.

In this paper, authors develop a resource model of political participation whereby time, money, and civic skills are distributed differently among socioeconomic groups. Access to these resources help individuals overcome voting barriers and thus have a strong impact on political participation.

In this paper, Aldrich asserts that voting is a "marginal activity" which is affected by costs. He finds that because the costs and benefits of voting are low, small "non-rational" factors such as social pressure or psychological stakes can impact a person's decision to vote. These findings are foundational to academic literature on voter turnout.

This course series connects election officials to frameworks, strategies, resources, and best practices related to designing and administering poll worker programs. This series is free and consists of four courses focused specifically on recruiting, training, managing and retaining poll workers.

This resource allows election officials to estimate the number of accessible voting machines needed at a given polling place to meet target wait times for voters with disabilities. This calculation accounts for factors such as number of in-person voters, check-in stations, and hand-marked ballot voting stations, among others.

This usability testing kit contains a collection of guidelines and templates to help election officials check the usability of election materials. They are intended to help election officials systematize their usability tests, produce reliable findings, and expand their ability to test voting materials thoroughly with real users.

This paper examines scholarly literature since 2008 regarding the motivation of public officials to serve their community. The authors identify several lessons impacting management and leadership of the public workforce, including the role of cooperative work environments in facilitating public service motivation, and using public service motivation as a selection tool, among other things.