Resources

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 paper present a case study examining the implementation of Election Day vote centers, finding that successful adoption requires coordination across multiple elements of the election ecosystem.

This research finds even in the absence of elite claims of vote fraud, authors see strong and immediate shifts in mass views. Once the results became clear, those who supported the losing side became significantly less likely to trust that votes were counted correctly or to be satisfied with the election process, while trust and support for the process rose from pre-to post-election for voters on the winning side.

In this paper, authors provide recommendations from disability voting rights advocates on how to improve the physical accessibility of polling locations and the usability of accessible voting equipment.

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.

The past two decades have seen a decline in trust in American elections that has primarily been driven by a slow but steady decline in trust among Republicans. Surprisingly, the increased polarization in trust most recently has been due more to Democrats suddenly becoming more trusting. Election officials must continue to try to overcome attacks on trust in the system, but it is unclear how long they can sustain the legal system guaranteeing free and fair elections without broad-based public trust in how elections are administered.

This paper challenges the HAVA minimum of one ADA-compliant device per polling location as insufficient and recommends that local election officials determine the number of accessible devices based on the proportion of voters with disabilities in their jurisdiction.

In this PhD dissertation, Schmidt introduces optimization and simulation models to support the design and operation of resilient in-person election voting systems. Three core contributions: (1) a discrete-event simulation of pandemic-resilient polling-place design, with a case study of Milwaukee, WI; (2) the Polling Location Consolidation Problem (PLCP), an integer programming model applied to Richland County, SC; and (3) an optimization model for ballot drop box siting in Milwaukee.

This survey / research report 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 adds evidence on one of the recurring drivers of election trust: experience, information, partisanship, security, or institutional performance.

This research finds that explicit cues about rigged voting machines increase belief in such theories, especially when the cues target the opposing political party. Explicit cues also decrease confidence in elections regardless of the targeted party, but they have no effect on satisfaction with democracy or support for election security funding.

In this PhD dissertation, Bernardo develops a simulation-based framework to examine how in-person election system conditions affect voter wait times and throughput. Three core contributions: (1) observational time studies of voting operations across multiple Rhode Island elections to calibrate arrival-rate and service-time parameters; (2) discrete-event simulation models of polling-place operations under varying equipment types, layouts, and resource levels; and (3) application of the models to COVID-19 social-distancing scenarios, precinct-consolidation decisions, and minimum requirements for accessible equipment.

This National Task Force on Election Crises resource explains how election officials communicate results, conduct canvasses and audits, and confirm outcomes to build public trust.