Resources

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this paper, authors invite the human factors and ergonomics community to engage with election administration research. The paper describes the complexity and scale of U.S. election administration and identifies open research challenges where human factors expertise is directly applicable, including accessible design, poll worker training, and error minimization.

This tool provides three resources to help election officials write and design poll worker manuals that make it easy for poll workers to quickly find information, even in stressful situations on Election Day. It includes best practices, templates, and a toolkit.

The biennial comprehensive survey of election administration across all 50 states, five territories, and D.C., covering the 2022 midterm general election—widely seen as a return to normal operations after the COVID-19-disrupted 2020 election. Key in-person voting findings include: 645,219 poll workers assisted with early and Election Day voting, including more than 80,000 first-time poll workers (16.7% of the total); election officials reported that poll worker recruitment was meaningfully easier than in the 2018 midterms; e-pollbook adoption grew significantly, with 2,271 local jurisdictions in 40 states using them (up 60% from 2008); nearly all states (94.6%) reported conducting logic and accuracy testing of voting machines before tabulation; and the 2022 EAVS collected data on drop boxes and ballot curing for the first time, finding nearly 13,000 drop boxes in use nationally. The survey also covers voter registration, UOCAVA voting, absentee voting, provisional balloting, and voting technology across all reporting jurisdictions.

This report examines poll workers in the current election environment, including recruitment challenges, training needs, and the role poll workers play in shaping the voter experience and in building public confidence in elections.

This paper examines whether minority and Democratic-leaning voters in Florida receive lower poll worker staffing. Using data from multiple elections, authors find evidence of partisan disparities in staffing levels, with Democratic-trending counties receiving worse service relative to Republican-trending counties. They apply operations management methods to document systemic resource allocation inequities in polling place operations.

Hostetter examines whether the use of electronic poll books affects voter wait times, finding mixed results that depend on context, including photo ID requirements and precinct demographics.