Resources

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

185 Resources

Joshua D. ClintonVanderbilt University2026
Voter Trust Academic Papers

This study characterizes how confidence in the accuracy of national elections changed with the projected election of President Trump on Election Day.

In-Person Voting Reports

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-Person Voting Tools

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.

National Association of Secretaries of State2025
Voter Trust Issue Briefs

In this brief, authors discuss how election websites are a primary touchpoint for voters seeking reliable guidance on registration, polling locations, and voting procedures. By prioritizing easy access and transparency, authors state that election offices can bolster trust and engagement, strengthening the democratic process.

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.

Laura Uribe, Jennifer Gaudette, Thad Kousser2025
Voter Trust Academic Papers

The authors conducted a nationally representative survey of 3,038 eligible voters with 999 self-identifying as disabled. The findings reveal voters with disabilities expressed lower confidence in the accuracy of their votes being counted. Voting by mail instilled greater confidence in voters with disabilities with nearly 12 percent more of them opting for this method. Trust levels varied within disability categories with Democratic respondents with disabilities displaying higher trust in election accuracy.

Morgan Wack, Joseph S. Schafer, Ian Kennedy, Anna Beers, Emma S. Spiro, Kate Starbird2025
Voter Trust Academic Papers

This academic paper focuses on election misinformation, fraud narratives, or public misperceptions and their effects on confidence in U.S. elections. It is relevant because beliefs about fraud and exposure to misleading claims are central mechanisms through which confidence in election outcomes rises or falls. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

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.

Cheryl Boudreau, Jennifer Gaudette, Thad Kousser, Seth J. Hill, Mackenzie Lockhart, Laura Uribe2025
Voter Trust Academic Papers

Three experiments about election official messaging are summarized, which:(a) compare the impact of messages conveyed through earned versus paid media; (b) ask whether Americans are more responsive to messages from federal or from state election officials; (c) explore the impact of videos and static visuals.